Urban malaria in the Sahel: prevalence and seasonality of presumptive malaria and parasitaemia at primary care level in Chad
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_99BED333B852
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Urban malaria in the Sahel: prevalence and seasonality of presumptive malaria and parasitaemia at primary care level in Chad
Journal
Tropical Medicine and International Health
ISSN
1360-2276 (Print)
Publication state
Published
Issued date
02/2006
Volume
11
Number
2
Pages
204-10
Notes
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't --- Old month value: Feb
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't --- Old month value: Feb
Abstract
ObJECTIVE: To assess malaria prevalence rates and seasonal patterns among clinically diagnosed malaria cases at the level of primary care facilities in an urban Sahelian setting. METHOD: Screening all patients consulting two private and two governmental providers on a randomly selected weekday over a period of 9 months. Patients with presumptive malaria underwent a blood test. RESULTS: Of 1658 patients included in the survey, 47% were clinically diagnosed and treated as malaria cases. Malaria was more often diagnosed by private providers. There were no clear seasonal patterns in presumptive malaria. A 30% of clinically diagnosed cases were positive for Plasmodium (all falciparum) by thick film examination. Thus, false positive cases constituted more than 70% of the clinically diagnosed malaria cases. The highest positive prevalence rates were found at the end and shortly after the rainy season (44%-47%) and the lowest during the dry season (2%). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical diagnosis of malaria has a very low positive predicted value in this low endemicity urban setting, and its low specificity leads to inappropriate care for a large proportion of patients. This has a major impact on economic costs for health services and households. In the Sahel, systematic use of microscopy-based diagnosis and/or rapid diagnostic tests should be considered to appropriately manage malaria and non-malaria cases.
Keywords
Adolescent
Adult
Age Distribution
Chad/epidemiology
Child
Child, Preschool
Diagnostic Errors
Female
Humans
Infant
Malaria, Falciparum/diagnosis/*epidemiology
Male
Middle Aged
Parasitemia/diagnosis/*epidemiology
Population Surveillance/methods
Prevalence
*Primary Health Care
*Seasons
Urban Health
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
28/01/2008 11:49
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:01