Magnitude of Anemia in patients infected with Plasmodium vivax malaria at Showa Robit Health Center, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Malaria is still a major public health concern in some parts of the world. Plasmodium vivax is common parasite in Ethiopia. Although there were reports about its association with severe anemia in malaria patients, an in-depth study that targeted assessing the magnitude of this pathology is not reported from Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the frequency of P.vivax associated anemia and risk factors in clinical P. vivax malaria patients. Accordingly, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in malaria suspected febrile patients seeking medication at Showa Robit Health Center between 2018 and 2019. P. vivax diagnosis was carried out following a standard parasitological procedure. Haemoglobin (Hb) level was measured using Hemcue™; socio-demographic and clinical data were collected by health professionals. Data were analyzed using R-software. Among the 10,459 malaria suspected febrile cases tested, 1,113 (10.64%) were found positive for P.vivax. Among the positive cases, only 227 cases were fulfilled the inclusion criteria and recruited for the study. The prevalence of anemia was 40.52%. Patients aged between 5 to 14 years have significantly (AOR: 0.19, 95%CI: 0.067-0.544) lower chance of developing anemia compared to younger children, aged <5years. Also, some severe pathologies such as being febrile (body temperature >37.5^oC) and having high parasite load didn’t show an association with higher risk of anemia due to P. vivax.  This study provides evidences for the fact that P. vivax is a risk factor for the incidence of anemia, which makes it an important public health concern in vivax malaria endemic regions.