Prevalence of Malaria Parasites Amongst Pregnant Women in Calabar Cross River State Nigeria

Malaria infection during pregnancy is a major public health problem- especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions; with substantial risks for the mother, her foetus and the new-born, Pregnant women are particularly susceptible to malaria, and in low transmission settings they have a greater risk of severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria. This study aimed at investigating the rate of parasitaemia amongst pregnant and none pregnant women was conducted among people attending clinics at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Mambo hospital, Nosam medical laboratory services in Calabar Cross River state. They fall within the age group 18 to 60 years. They were pregnant women who came for Antenatal clinic, controls were sampled from patients who came to request for medical examination and blood donors. Thick and thin blood smears were made from finger prick samples of 400 candidates attending Antenatal clinics 200 of them were from established pregnant women and the other 200 were from non-pregnant women to serve as control. The blood films were dried and fixed in absolute methanol dried and stained with 2% Giemsa stain for 30 min. it was then rinse in clean water and allowed to dry in a draining rack. Dried slides were viewed using x100 oil immersion objective. Result revealed a parasitic rate of 132 (55.9 %) among pregnant women and104 (44.1%) parasitaemia among none pregnant women. The difference between pregnant women and none pegnant women were significantly different at p < 0.05. Similarly, the mean parasite density of the pregnant women was higher 28.9 against 14.2 of control none pregnant women. In conclusion there was a significant density of malaria parasitaemia amongst pregnant women in this study.