Epidemiology of Malaria Parasite and Intestinal Helminths among Children Attending Specialist Hospital and Maryam Abacha Women and Children Hospital in Sokoto Metropolis

Background: Co-infection of Malaria parasite and intestinal helminths is a serious global problem with increasing morbidity and mortality rate especially in the developing countries and it occurs among all age groups and gender. Despite the fact that this disease affects all age groups, the frequency and severity of the disease are most common among children less than 15 years of age due to their undeveloped immunity coupled with their frequent exposure to the predisposing factors.

Aims: This research aimed to determine the co-infection of Malaria parasite and intestinal helminths among children attending some selected hospitals during the course of the study.

Study Design: This was a cross sectional, descriptive study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted among children (1 to 15 years) attending Specialist hospital and Maryam Abacha Women and Children’s hospital in Sokoto metropolis, from May 2020 to October 2020.

Methodology: A total of 152 stool and blood samples were collected. Parasitological examination was carried out on stool samples using microscopy following formal ether concentration methods while malaria parasites were determined using rapid diagnostic test (RDT).

Results: Findings revealed that 58 (38.2%) were positive for malaria parasite while 11 (7.2%) were positive for intestinal helminths. The intestinal helminths encountered in this study were A. lumbricoides with a prevalence rate of 2.6%, T. trichiuria with a prevalence of 2.0% followed by D. latum and E. vermicularis with a prevalence rate of 1.3% each. In this study, a higher rate of prevalence for malaria infection was recorded in males (39.3%) and a lower prevalence was seen in females (36.5%). There was no statistical significance between malaria infection and gender (X2= 0.319, P-value= 0.572). The age group 11-15 had the highest prevalence rate for malaria infection (42.9%), while the least prevalence rate (33.3%) was seen in the age group 1-5 years. There was no statistical significance between malaria infection and age group (X2= 1.073, P-value= 0.585). For intestinal helminth infection, males showed a higher prevalence of 9.0% than their female counterparts with 4.8%. But this was not statistical significant ( X2 = 1.337, P- value = 0.720). For the overall study, only one sample was found to have co-infection of malaria parasite and intestinal helminths which gave a co-infection prevalence rate of 1 (0.7%).

Conclusion: The overall 152 blood and stool samples collected 38.2% were positive for malaria parasite while intestinal helminths were 7.2% only. The co-infection prevalence rate recorded so far was 0.7% and no multiple intestinal helminths were seen in any sample throughout the research.