Incidence of Malaria among Pregnant Women Attending Some Health Facilities in Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria

Malaria in pregnancy is a public health challenge that continues to put pregnant women and their unborn babies at risk. In the study, the incidence of malaria infection among pregnant women attending some health facilities in Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria was determined. Well-designed questionnaire was used to obtain relevant information from the study subjects attending Dr. Karima Primary Health Center Gusau, King Fahad Women and Children Hospital Gusau, General Hospital Gusau and Shagari Primary Health care Gusau for antenatal care. About 5 ml of blood samples were drawn from the study subjects. The blood samples were subjected to examination for plasmodium with thick blood firm by means of Giemsa staining techniques and using RDT kits. The result showed that from a total of 400 subjects examined for the presence of malaria parasite, 144 of them representing 36% were infected with the parasite and the incidence of malaria on the basis of age categories of the respondents indicated that it was peaked in subjects aged 26-30 years old, 66 (16.5%), followed by respondents aged 21 – 30 years with total of 34 infected individuals representing 8.5%, then those aged less than 20 years old with 18 infected individuals (4.5%) and those aged 31 – 35 years 17 (4.25%). Based on gestation age of the subjects, the infection to malaria was observed to decrease as the trimester increase indicating higher infection among those in first trimester with frequency of 73 (18.25%) and least in those who were in their third trimester stage with total of 22 infected subjects representing 5.5% of total incidence rate. It was concluded that there was malaria incidence among pregnant women in Gusau metropolis.