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
Author(s)
Othnigue  N., Wyss  K., Tanner  M., Genton  B.
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
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
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