Malaria Infection in relation to parasitological indices, blood group and anaemia in pregnant women attending two health facilities in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Decline of maternal immunity and susceptibility to malaria had posed a detrimental effect on the maternal health and foetal outcomes. A cross-sectional study was carried out in two different secondary health facilities at General Hospital Ganye and Cottage Hospital Toungo with the aim of determining the malaria burden in relation to parasite species, parasite density, blood group and anaemia in pregnant women who booked for antenatal care as first timer irrespective of their gestational stage. A total of 471 randomly selected pregnant women who consented to the study were enrolled for the study. Blood samples were collected from each of the consented pregnant women. Thick and thin blood smear were prepared using Giemsa and examined microscopically to detect malaria parasite and infecting species, respectively. The overall prevalence of malaria was 22.9% (n=108). Plasmodium falciparum and P. malariae were the two malaria species encountered with a prevalence of 78.7% and 19.4%, respectively. Mixed infection had a 1.9% prevalence. Parasite density was recorded as low (67.6%), moderate (11.1%) and severe (21.3%) with a statistical significance (P=0.000). Prevalence of malaria in relation to blood group showed that pregnant women with blood group O (51.9%) had the highest burden of malaria infection and blood group AB (6.5%) had the least, although there was no statistical significance. Non-anaemic pregnant women recorded the highest infection prevalence (37.0%). This study revealed that malaria infection is significantly associated with the infecting parasite species and parasite density. It was discovered that P. falciparum was the most predominant species in the region during the period of this research.