The Effect of Malaria on Biochemical Liver Function Parameters in Sudanese Pregnant Women (original) (raw)

Malaria infection among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in six

2015

objectives The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of pregnant women towards malaria and their association with malaria morbidity. methods Cross-sectional malaria survey of 1432 pregnant women attending six health centres, each of them situated in a specific health district in Rwanda from September to October 2002. results The overall prevalence of malaria infection was 13.6% and all infections but two were caused by Plasmodium falciparum. The six health districts were significantly different in terms of malaria prevalence, which varied between 11.5% and 15.4% in four and was <5% in the other two districts. The prevalence of anaemia and splenomegaly mirrored that of malaria infection. In three districts, the prevalence of infection was significantly higher in primigravidae than in secundigravidae and multigravidae (P ¼ 0.01), while in two others it did not vary with parity. Bed net use was low -only 13.1% of the women had at least one bed net at home and 8.3% of them slept under it -and significantly different between districts. Most women knew that malaria might have serious consequences for their pregnancy and that insecticide-treated bed nets are useful for malaria prevention. However, the bed net market price [1525 Rwandan Francs (RFr), approximately 1.6€] was much higher than that considered as affordable and acceptable (389 RFr, approximately 0.3€). conclusion Malaria in pregnancy is a major problem in Rwanda, even in the districts of low transmission. Bed net use among pregnant women is low. The option of providing free insecticidetreated bed nets to pregnant women should be explored and possibly implemented; it could rapidly increase bed net use and earlier attendance to antenatal clinics with clear benefits for the women's health.

Use and Effects of Malaria Control Measures in Pregnancy in Lagos, Nigeria

The Korean Journal of Parasitology, 2011

In Nigeria, malaria causes up to 11% of maternal mortality. Our main aim was to find out the most common mosquito control measures employed by the pregnant women in Lagos and their effects on malaria infection. The study was carried out over a period of 6 months during which trained interviewers administered questionnaires to 400 pregnant women. The prevalence of malaria was 8.4%. There was no significant association between the prevalence of malaria and age, level of education, or occupation of the participants. Pregnant women in the age range 26-30 had the mean parasite density (409.9± 196.80). Insecticide spray (32.8%), mosquito coil (27.5%), and insecticide-treated nets (ITN) (15.5%) were the major mosquito control measures employed by the participants while the prevalence of infection among them were 2.3%, 6.2%, and 3.2%, respectively (P < 0.05). Only 18.3% of the women had taken more than one dose of intermittent preventive treatment (IPT), while another 11.8% had taken a single dose. The infection rate among them was 4.1% and 6.4%, respectively. Malaria prevalence was highest among those who had not received any dose of IPT (10%). This study showed that the use of ITN and IPT among the pregnant women were still unacceptably low. It also showed that the use of insecticide spray which was the most common malaria control measure adopted by the participants was effective despite the fact that it is not a National Malaria Control Policy. We recommend that a sustained integrated mosquito man-agement and public education should be strengthened in Nigeria.