MALARIA; CAUSAL PARASITE AND CLINICAL FEATURES IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS

Objective: To find the common malarial parasite involved in causing malaria, and its clinical features. Material and Methods: It was a descriptive Cross Sectional Study done at Pediatric Clinic at Bara, Khyber Agency, Pakistan; from July 2009 to January 2014. One hundred and nineteen patients were selected from patients who attended this clinic during the study period. Data was collected using pre-designed questionnaire. The information on child's age, gender, history of high grade fever, chills, vomiting, abdominal pain, and low grade fever was obtained. The examination included assessing the body weight, axillary's temperature, palmar and conjunctival pallor and spleen for splenomegaly. Heamoglobin of each patient was obtained and analyzed according to WHO criteria. Results: Among 119 Malarial Parasite (MP) positive patients, the most common symptom was high grade fever (98.3%) followed by chills (9.2%), abdominal Pain (1.7%), vomiting (0.8%) and low grade fever (0.8%). On examination palmar and conjunctival pallor was present in 96.6% children and splenomegaly in 12.6% children. The frequencies of symptoms and signs did not vary significantly across the gender, P>0.05. Across Malaria parasite, only splenomegaly vary significantly, P=0.001. Conclusion: Plasmodium vivax was the most common parasite, presented with high grade fever. Chills, with pallor and splenomegaly was common in Plasmodium falciparum Malaria.