Frequency and risk factors of malaria infection in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

摘要

Background: Nearly, half world's people are at high risk from malaria disease and around 1 to 2 millionpeople die from malaria every year.Objectives: The current study was conducted to determine the frequency of malarial disease in DeraIsmail Khan, Pakistan.Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out to examine the malarial infection in the blood of3398 suspected malarial patients from January to July, 2017. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS.Results: Among 3398 suspected patients, 415(12.2%) were positive for Plasmodium. Out of these,96.6% (n= 401) cases were due to Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) infection and only 3.4% (n= 14) hadPlasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). In seasonal variations, P. vivax infection was highest (n=121) inJuly and lowest (n=15) in February. Prevalence of disease was 52.8% (n=219) in less than 14 years agespeoples and 47.2% (n=196) in above 14 years ages. Males (n=286, 68.9%) were highly infected byPlasmodium as compared to females.Conclusions: Malaria infection was considerably frequent in Dera Ismail Khan, one of the hottest areasof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The high incidence rate of P. vivax is significantly threat to humans’population in Dera Ismail Khan and may lead to serious health problems, including cerebral malaria.