PREVALENCE OF MALARIA INFECTION AMONG THE PUPILS IN SOME SELECTED COMMUNITIES OF SHINKAFI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ZMFARA STATE, NIGEIA
Bala, A. Y., *Salau Shafa’atu, Bandiya H. M., Mahmuda Aliyu and Suleiman, J.
ABSTRACT
Malaria disease was reported annually to be the most dangerous and killer disease in Nigeria especially in poor communities who lacked knowledge for prevention and control of malaria infection. This study was conducted to investigate the frequency of malaria infection among pupils in Shinkafi Local Government of Zamfara State, Nigeria, some villages were selected from ten (10) district of Shinkafi local government using simple random selection, the blood samples were collected from four hundred (400) pupils from Badarawa, Jangeru, Kurya and Kware primary schools (100 blood samples from each) and analyzed using Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits. The results were analyzed using Multiple regression analysis to sort out any significant association at P<0.05, an overall prevalence of 64.5% was observed among the pupils; it was observed that pupils from Badarwa had significantly highest infection rate (71.0%) followed those from Jangeru (67.3%) then Kurya pupils (67.3%) and those from Kware had lowest prevalence (50.0%) ; similarly, male were highly infected (68.1%) than female (63.7%) with no significant association; pupils aged 4-8 had higher malaria infection rate (75.0%) followed by 9-13 age group (70.5%) then >14 age group (60.7%) with no significant association; it was reported that; pupils whose parents are fishermen had highest prevalence (67.1%) followed by children whose parents were farmers with 65.8% then those children whose parents were businessmen (55.6%) and lowest prevalence (54.3%) was observed among the children of civil servants, however, there was no significant association. Based on these findings malaria infection was found to be higher among the pupils in the study areas, therefore, urgent need for control measure is promptly need by the households, governmental and non-governmental organizations.
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