Prevalence of malaria parasitaemia in screened blood donors at Jos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Abstract

The prevalence of malaria parasitaemia was investigated among screened blood donors at Jos University Teaching Hospital between April and June 2003. A total of 200 blood donors that were systematically selected were examined for malaria parasitaemia. Twenty two samples were positive giving a prevalence of 11.0% and only Plasmodium falciparum was detected. The donors of <20 years old, had the highest prevalence of 20.0%, while 21–30, 31–40 and 41–50 year groups recorded 10.9%, 9.6% and 11.8% respectively (P<0.001). In relation to gender, only 6 females were studied with a prevalence of 16.7%, while the males (194) recorded 10.8% (P<0.001). The first-time donors had a prevalence of 9.6% as against the regular donors who recorded 12.9% (P>0.05). Donors with malaria parasitaemia of <50 parasites per microlitre of blood were 63.3% of the positive cases, while donors with 50–99, 100–150, 151–200 recorded 18.2%, 13.6% and 4.6% respectively (P<0.001). The highest prevalence of 12.7% was recorded in May while April and June recorded 0.0% and 11.0% respectively. The results of the study indicated a moderate prevalence rate of malaria parasitaemia and this calls to question if the recipients of screened blood should generally be treated prophylactically for malaria soon after transfusion, or whether such blood donors should be rejected or deferred.

Keywords: blood donors malaria parasitaemia

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol. 4(2) 2005: 99-101