Prevalence of asymptomatic malaria parasitaemia

Objective: To evaluate factors associated with prevalence of malaria parasitaemia at first antenatal care visit. Methods: The study was conducted at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital front 1st June, 2007 to 31st July, 2007. A structured questionnaire was administered to a total of 545 pregnant women that were recruited in this study after obtaining informed consent and two slides of thin and thick films were prepared for each participant. Results: Five hundred and twenty (95.4%) out of the 545 participants suffered from malaria parasitaemia, the rest 4.6% of those who had no parasitaemia had experienced symptomatic malaria before and were treated in private hospitals prior to their recruitment into the study. All participants (100%) who did not have antimalarials had parasitaemia compared with 91.1% among those that had antimalarials. The proportion of moderate to severe parasitaemia was also significantly higher among the former. Besides, the difference in parasitaemia between primigravidae and multigravidae was statistically significant (P=0.000) too. Among the methods used for vector control, only insecticide treated nets (ITNS) was associated with significant reduction in the level of parasitaemia (RR=0.83). Conclusion: Malaria parasitaemia at first booking is significantly, higher in primigravidae and women who have no anti malaria treatment. The use of safe and effective antimalarial treatment along with ITNs will significantly reduce the level of parasitaemia in pregnant women.