Malaria cases and its trend among the outpatients who attended some hospitals and health centres in four towns in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

Monitoring the trend of malaria cases over a period of time is very useful to evaluate successes of malaria control programme in the endemic area. This study evaluated the trend of malaria cases from 2013 to 2022 from four major towns in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Clinical data involving malaria cases of outpatient visits to some hospitals and health centres from 2013 to 2022 in the four towns of Ekiti State were collected for statistical analysis. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 29 with probability value of < 0.05 as significant. Results showed that 162,077 outpatients visited the selected hospitals and health centres of the four towns from 2013 to 2022. The overall percentage of malaria cases in the study area was 21.3 % with no significant difference (P = 0.001) from the four towns. There was a gradual decrease in malaria cases from 2013 to 2021 among outpatients who were not pregnant women. Malaria cases among pregnant women however showed a slight increase from 2013 to 2022. If the control measures that caused a decline of malaria cases in this study area is sustained for a good period of time, there is tendency that malaria is eliminated from the area and possibly in the whole Ekiti State.