Malarial Epidemiology among Patients in Al-Medina Al-Munawara, KSA

Life Sciences-Malarial Epidemiology in KSA

Abstract

Worldwide, malaria is the most important disease caused by parasites and responsible for a yearly estimation of 225 million clinical cases. The risk of the disease covers  almost half of the world’s population and the annual death has been estimated as 800.000. Children under five years of age are mainly affected. Pregnant women and adults with immunosuppression become victims of cerebral manifestations or anaemia and frequently die. Almost 40% of the world's population is at risk to acquire the infection. Human malaria is caused by four Plasmodium species among which the most prevalent is Plasmodium falciparum. Because of the higher global prevalence, morbidity and mortality rate of P. falciparum, most research efforts on malaria pathogenesis have been focused on this species. Recent studies have reported the clinical outcomes that originate from regions where P. falciparum and P. vivax are equally prevalent. This in turn could make the clinical tools inappropriate for use in managing vivax mono infections. Thus, the present study was aimed to identify the epidemiology and clinical features of the malarial cases of the Referral laboratory, Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia. A retrospective case series study was conducted among the patients  reported  from  January 2016  to  December  2016  using  a  specially  designed  data  collection  form.  Out  of  the  182 confirmed cases, 143 were non-saudi and 39 were Saudi cases. Most of the cases reported in the month of September due to seasonal  change.  Gender  distribution  showed  a  higher  dominance  of  male  patients  compared  to  females.  No  cases  were reported to be caused due to P.malariae. The predominant species was found to be P.Vivax (87%) while P.falciparum with only 13% incidence. Further investigations in large sample sizes are recommended to explore the other aspects in reducing the malaria burden.