Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum Infection (Malaria) Among Pregnant Women Attending Primary Health Care in Wushishi

Abstract

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Plasmodium falciparum is the leading cause of malaria in pregnant women, a disease of public health importance especially in Nigeria where the infection is endemic. Hence, this study was conducted to ascertain the prevalent rate of Plasmodium falciparum infection among pregnant women attending antenatal in primary health care center, Wushishi Local Government, Niger state, Nigeria. 150 pregnant women were randomly selected and tested for P. falciparum using Plasmodium falciparum (05FK50) Rapid Diagnostic Test kit. The result obtained, revealed that 36 (24%) out of the 150 samples of the pregnant women were positive without any clinical manifestation of the infection. The result revealed that the prevalence rate was higher among women within 11-20 age group (43.8%) than those within 21-30 (17.4%) and 31 and above (9.0%). It was also observed from the study that prevalence rate was lower among women who use Insecticide Treated Net (6.5%) compared to those who does not (52.6%). Therefore, the problem of Plasmodium falciparum infection in pregnant women should be prevented by the use of insecticide treated nets and effective case management with appropriate antimalarial drug during antenatal clinical visits.