Comparison of microscopy and rapid diagnostic techniques in malaria detection among children attending Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protist of the genus plasmodium. Malaria and anemia among children, especially those that are ≤ 5 years of age are still diseases of public health concern. This study was designed to compare microscopy and rapid diagnostic techniques in detecting malaria among children attending Federal Medical Centre Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Blood samples were collected from out-patients under five years reporting at the paediatric unit of the hospital. The blood samples were screened for the presence of malaria parasites using Microscopy and Rapid Diagnostic Test methods while packed cell volume status was determined by microhaematocrit centrifuge technique. The prevalence of malaria is calculated. The level of significance was determined using chi-square statistics. 150 samples collected, 21 (14%) were positive for malaria using microscopy while 7 (4.7%) were positive for Rapid Diagnostic Test. It was recorded that female had the highest prevalence of 52.4% (11) compared to 47.6% (10) recorded for male children. Children of 1year age had the highest prevalence of 61.9% (13) with lowest packed cell volume range of 14 – 26. Children of 2 and 5 years had the prevalence of 9.5% (2) with packed cell volume range of 26 - 28. 4.8% (1) prevalence was recorded among children of 3 years, this recorded the least prevalence and highest PCV level of 32 – 35. It was observed that the malaria prevalence has an effect on the packed cell volume level among the children. There was significant difference in the age and sex relationship with the Packed Cell Volume using microscopy and rapid diagnostic techniques (as P˂0.05). Sensitivity of 75% and specificity 47.4% in microscopy was higher than 25% sensitivity and 52.6% in Rapid Diagnostic Test. The study showed that Microscopy performed better than Rapid Diagnostic Test in the diagnosis of malaria in children under the age of ˂5 years. Malaria remains a common infection among under five children in the tropics and predisposes them to having effect on packed cell volume. There should be improvements in the uptake of control interventions against malaria.