Prevalence of malaria parasite among febrile children attending secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in Nasarawa south senatorial district, Nigeria

Malaria is a vector born disease caused by Plasmodium species and remains the major public health challenge in Sub-Sahara Africa. This study investigates the prevalence of malaria parasite among febrile children attending secondary and tertiary Healthcare facilities in Nasarawa South Senatorial District, Nigeria. A total of 464 blood samples of children with suspected cases of febrile were collected and the malaria parasite was examined from the sample using thick film microscopy method. The overall prevalence of the parasite out of 464 blood samples collected was 50(10.8%). The prevalence of the parasite in relation to the age of the febrile children was high among 11-15 year (17/82; 20.7%) but low among 0-5 year (18/247; 7.3%). The prevalence of the parasite in relation to the blood group and genotypes of the children was high among those with SS genotype (2/5; 40.0%) and blood group B (13/85; 8.3%). For history of the use of treated insecticides nets and prophylactic agent, the prevalence was high among those without history of the use of insecticide treated net (29/191; 15.2%) and prophylactic agent (38/255; 15.2%). The prevalence of the parasite was significantly associated with the age (P=0.007889), use of treated insecticide net (P=0.02743) and prophylactic agent (P=0.01434) but insignificantly associated with the gender (P=0.333), genotype (P=0.1546) and blood group (P=0.6828) of the febrile children. The prevalence of malaria was relatively low among the children with suspected cases of febrile in the study area.