Prevalence of Malaria among Patients Attending Primary Health Care Clinic Garaku, Nasarawa State, North Central Region of Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of malaria parasite infection (MPI) among patients attending Primary Health Care clinic (PHC) at Garaku, Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa State North Central Nigeria. A formal consent was issued by the Nasarawa State Hospital management Board to conduct the study. A studypopulation size of150 consenting, apparently healthy, males and females who had attended the Primary Health Care clinic situated at Garaku, Kokona Local, Government of Nasarawa State, for medical treatment, were recruited for the study. The study took place between the month of May 2019 and September 2019. The socio-demographic features of each participant were verbally obtained, and included sex, age, occupational and educational statuses. The gold standard tool (microscopy) was relied upon to determine the prevalence of malaria infection among the subjects. Blood samples collected from patients were Giemsa stained and microscopically examined for malaria parasites. Analysis of the samples revealed malaria prevalence of 53.3 %among the sampled population. Further analysis onmalaria prevalence with respect to factors such as age, educational and occupational status revealed that malaria infection was more prevalent among the civil servants (75%), followed by the elderly (71.4%), and followed by the educated (73.3%) in the population. In conclusion, the study established that women, civil servants, the elderly, and the least educated were more vulnerable to malaria infection within the study location