Prevalence of human malaria infection in District Jhal Magsi of Balochistan, Pakistan. -

Objective: To study the prevalence of malarial infections in human population of district Jhal Magsi areas of Pakistan. Patients and Methods: Malarial parasites were identified in the blood slides of suspected patients of the disease from July, 2006 to June, 2008, and encompassed 3402 subjects. Results: Out of 3402 suspected cases of malaria, 1189 (34.9%) were found to be positive for malarial parasite in blood smear slides. Out of positive cases,773 (65%) were identified as Plasmodium vivax infection, 416 (34.9%) cases with P. falciparum. However, seasonal variation was also noted with the highest (71.6%: 96/134) infection of P. vivax in March and lowest (54%: 40/74) in September. The prevalence was higher (65.3%) in males. Age wise, the prevalence of the disease was 66.9% and 65.4% for age group of 11-20 years and 1-10 years. There was no case of P. malariae and P. ovale detected in the present study. These results are compared with those of other studies conducted in Pakistan. Conclusion: Human Malaria is quite frequent in Jhal Magsi area, which is the hottest area s of Balochistan in Pakistan. In clinically suspected cases of malaria, there are very high slide positivity rate. The high prevalence rate 65% of P. vivax poses a significant health hazard but 34.9% of P. falciparum also may lead to serious complications like cerebral malaria. The high frequency of Human malaria infection should be of great concern for authorities at malaria control program in Pakistan. No association was found between types of infection and age groups.