Sendentarization and the prevalence of malaria and anaemia among settled Fulani pastoralists in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

This paper reports the result of a cross-sectional study to investigate the extent of malaria infection among settled Fulani pastoralists in south-western Nigeria. A total of 527 blood samples were collected from settled Fulani pastoralists in Kwara, Oyo and Ogun States respectively. The overall prevalence of malaria infection in the zone was 33.6%. Kwara State had the highest prevalence of 39.0% while Oyo State had the least prevalence of 29.9%. There was a significant difference (X2 = 10.97; df = 2; p=0.004) in prevalence between the three states. Fulani female were significantly more infected (p<0.05) than their male counterparts, where 101 (57.1%) of 117 infected subjects were female. Also, children of aged 0-18 had significantly (p<0.005) more infection than the adult, as 97 (54.8%) of the infected people were children. The overall mean haemoglobin (Hb) concentration and Packed Cell Volume (PCV) in the population were 36.3% and 12.2 g/dl respectively which were below the normal values. The prevalence of low PCV/Hb was 50.7%, with highest prevalence of 58.1% from Kwara State. Cases of anaemia were found to be higher in children than adults and more in female than male. These findings suggest that changes from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles may have negative impacts on the health of nomadic Fulani pastoralists.

Keywords: prevalence, malaria, anaemia, sedentarization, life style changes, Fulani pastoralists, south-western Nigeria.

Nigerian Journal of Parasitology Vol. 29 (2) 2008: pp. 125-130