Retrospective analysis of urban malaria cases due to Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax: the case of Batu town, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Malaria is a major health problem in the world particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where 90% of malaria deaths occur. Likewise malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia. It has been reported that about 75% of the country is malarious where 60% of its population is at risk of this infection. Like many African countries, Ethiopian urban settings are characterized by poor housing, lack of sanitation and drainage of surface water which provide conducive environment for the breeding of vector mosquitoes for the transmission of malaria. There are few researches on urban malaria under the urban settings of Ethiopia. The purpose of this study was to assess the magnitude of malaria cases due to Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax in Batu town, Oromia, Ethiopia. Retrospective laboratory confirmed malaria case record data of six years (2012-2017) were used to analyze the magnitude of malaria cases due to P. falciparum and P. vivax, in Batu town, Oromia, Ethiopia. The retrospective data analysis revealed an overall 21,797 malaria confirmed cases; of which 49.5% were due to P. falciparum and 50.5% were due to P. vivax, with a slight decline in malaria between 2012 and 2017. Malaria cases were recorded in both sexes and all age groups in the study area. From the result of the present analysis it can be concluded that both P. falciparum and P. vivax were the cause for malaria cases indicating malaria is still public health problem in Batu town. Therefore, appropriate strategic control measures must be designed to protect the public and eventually eliminate malaria from the area and the country as a whole.

Eight-year Retrospective Analysis of Malaria Trends in Gedeo Zone, South Ethiopia (2012-2019)

“…Individuals in the age group of 15 and above were also more signi cantly affected. This was in line with other local studies [23,31]. Inconsistent result was observed in southern Ethiopia [24] arguing that malaria cases cluster among the under-5.…”

“…Over the eight years period, overall, there was malaria positivity rate of 11.79%, data from the HCs. This positivity rate was comparable with certain studies done in Ethiopia including from Batu town (12.43%) [23], Arsi Negelle (11.40%) [24] and Halaba special district (9.47%) [25]. In contrast, higher overall malaria positivity rates were reported from related studies conducted in south-central Ethiopia [26], southern Ethiopia [27] and abroad in Dakar, Senegal [28] with 33.83%, 21.79% and 19.68% respectively.…”

“…falciparum and P. vivax were detected where equivalent; congruent results were reported in some other parts of Ethiopia [26,27]. While other local studies [23,25,31] documented that the dominant species was P. vivax. The proportion of mixed infection in this study was congruent with other studies [26,30], whereas inconsistent with other reports [27,31].…”

“…Males were slightly more infected (51.51%) by malaria than females (48.49%) over the eight-year period. This was paralleled with other studies conducted in different parts of Ethiopia [23,26,27,31]. However, this nding was not consistent with other reports in southern Ethiopia [25] and elsewhere in Mozambique [36] where higher malaria cases in females were documented.…”

Urban Malaria Prevalence and Its Associated Risk Factors: The Case of Batu Town, East Shoa, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

“…However, this proportion varies from place to place and season to season [7]. For example, recent studies have showed that there is a trend of shift of dominance from P. falciparum to P. vivax [9][10][11]. Since 2004, arthemisinin-lumefantrine (AL) (Coartem®) and chloroquine (CQ) are used as rst line drugs for the treatment of P. falciparum and P. vivax, respectively, in the country [7].…”