Epidemiology of malaria among children aged 1 to 15 years in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

An epidemiological survey was conducted on prevalence of malaria among children aged 1-15yrs in south east Nigeria. A total of 498 children were surveyed for malaria and other morbidity indicators. Out of these, 369 which include 195 (52.8%) males and 174 (47.2%) females were from experimental household and 129, including 66 (51.2%) males and 63 (48.8%) females from control household. Before the deployment of Lambdacyhalothrin-treated household items - curtains, mats and blankets, the total malaria prevalence and all the morbidity indicators examined were (P<0.05) high among the sexes in both the experimental households and their control. By the end of the study, there was significant (p<0.05) decrease in malaria prevalence and all the associated morbidity indicators among the sexes in the experimental households. The total percentage prevalence decreased from 69.7% to 39.4%, 63.2% to 33.3 and 69.2% to23.1% for males and 77.4% to 27.6%, 63.2 to 26.3 and 50% to 28.6% for female of ages 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15 respectively. The mean morbidity indicators dropped from 12.9≡13 to 1.9≡2; 9 to 0.6≡1 and 6.5≡7 to 0.6≡1 in sampled children of same age bracket but in the control households, they still remain on the increase (p<0.05). The least malaria prevalence was 59.1% recorded among female infants and mean morbidity indicator remained was 6.5≈7. The prevalence of malaria was comparable by sex and age and found to be statistically not significant p>0.05.   Key words: Malaria, insecticide, lambdacyhalothrin, morbidity.