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Prevalence of
malaria parasitaemia in the booking antenatal (ANC) patients
at the Lagos state university teaching hospital
Tayo Adetokunbo
O.1*, Akinola O. I.1, Shittu L. A. J.2,
Ottun T. A.1, Bankole M. A.3, Akinola
R. A.4, Shittu R. K.5 and
Okunribido A. I.1
1Department
of Obstetric and Gynaecology, Lagos State University College
of Medicine/ Lagos State University Teaching Hospital,
Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
2Department
of Anatomy, Lagos State University College of Medicine,
Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
3Department
of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, College of
Medicine, University of Lagos/Lagos University Teaching
Hospital, Idi-araba, Lagos, Nigeria.
4Department
of Radiology, Lagos State University College of
Medicine/Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja,
Lagos, Nigeria.
5Medical
Microbiology Unit, Bolomedics Laboratories, Egbeda, Lagos,
Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
tokunbunmi@yahoo.com.
Accepted 26 March, 2009 |
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We studied 270 patients attending the booking
antenatal clinic recruited for three months in the Lagos
State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Nigeria. Each
patient was screened for malaria parasites using Giemsa’s
stain of thick and thin blood films on 2 ml venous blood.
Parameters on the age, parity, gestation at booking, booking
weight, haemoglobin status among others were obtained. Most
of the booked patients are primigravida (55%) with 58.4% of
the cases between 14 - 26 weeks gestation. 48 and 65% of
patients were of blood group O positive and genotype AA. The
prevalence rate for malarial parasitaemia was 34% and mostly
Plasmodium falciparum were isolated. However, a
negative correlation exist between malaria parasitaemia and
age of patient (r = - 0.02), parity (r = - 0.02) and
gestation at booking (r = -0.08). Malarial parasite load was
high especially in primigravida and in second trimester of
pregnancies. Since most of the fetal losses associated with
malarial parasitaemia in pregnancies occurred during this
period, greater attention be paid to this vulnerable group.
Key words:
Booking weight, gestational age, LASUTH, malarial parasite,
parity. |
