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The Prevalence Of Malaria Among Pregnant Women On Admission In Imo State Specialist Hospital Owerri
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PREVENTION/CONTROL OF MALARIA IN PREGNANCY
The main ways of preventing malaria in pregnancy can be achieved in two ways, they are;
Avoiding mosquito bite:- This can be achieved in various ways.
A)
VECTOR CONTROL: This means trying to reduce contact with the vector of
the disease. Controlling mosquito can significantly reduce malaria
incidence as well as other mosquito borne diseases. Installation of
screened windows air condition together with strategies to reduce vector
populations are very effective and have led to the total elimination of
malaria without completely getting rid of the mosquito (Neeru, 2005).
B)
USE OF INSECTICIDE TREATED BED NETS (ITNS): ITNS can reduce the
incidence of malaria infection in pregnancy and also mortality rate in
endemic areas. If ITNS are widely used in an endemic places, the
mosquito population may drop dramatically as well as their life spans.
2)
Preventing disease using anti malarial medications: Drugs that are
effective and at the same time that cannot affect the growing foetus
should be administered starting from early pregnancy. This type of
prevention is also known as suppression, they do not prevent the
parasite from entering the blood stream but they stop it from developing
in the blood (mc cormick,1985)
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to
Oxford Medical Dictionary, pregnancy is a period during which a woman
harbors a developing foetus normally in the uterus. This last for
approximately 266 days from the time of conception till the time of
delivery the baby 280 days from the first day of a woman’s menstrual
period.
It has been observed that malaria in pregnancy has continued
to be a scourge in tropical and subtropical region of the world.
However, p. Falciparum has been noted to be the most serious form of the
disease in pregnancy. (WHO, 1993).
Malaria in pregnancy is the major
cause of stillbirths, infant mortality, maternal mortality and even low
birth weight (Menendez, 1994). In areas where malaria is endemic,
people may have immunity or semi – immunity and therefore have either no
symptoms or few symptoms.
The severity of the malaria depends on three things:
The type of parasite
Ones immunity
The functional ability of one’s spleen (Schultiz, 1994).
The
parasite is transmitted by female anopheles mosquito when it bites
human. As the parasite exists in human red blood cells, malaria can be
passed from one person to the other through organ transplant, share of
used needles/syringes and blood transfusion. Additionally, infected
mother can as well transfer malaria to her baby during delivery it is
called congenital malaria (Bray et al, 1999).
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This
research work is made to find out the rate at which malaria affect
pregnant women and their unborn children. It is also made to educate
mothers of childbearing age and even the entire population on how best
to check malaria infection in order to enhance the health of mother and
child.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]A study was made to determine the prevalence of malaria infection among pregnant women on admission in Imo State specialist Hospital Owerri between July to August 2012. Blood samples were collected from the patients and a thick blood film made. The films were stained using parasitological standard procedures. Twenty-five (25) pregnant women in their 1st trimesters had the highest severe parasitaemia with 54.5%. And also primigravidae were also observed to have the highest infection rate with 87. ... Continue reading---
