The Trends and Areas of Origins of Malaria Cases in Under-Five Children

Globally, many countries have used several interventions to eliminate Malaria. This include; intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy and insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS). These interventions have seen a decline of malaria cases in under-five children over the past years. Despite these significant strides made over the past decade, malaria continues to be a major burden causing mortality and morbidity especially in more prone areas, under-five children and pregnant women. A quantitative and a retrospective record review was used to analyze the trends and origins of malaria prevalence in under-five children from 2015 – 2017 at Chipili Rural Health center in Chipili district of Zambia and the main focus was on confirmed malaria cases. The prevalence of laboratory confirmed malaria cases from 2015 – 2017 was found to be 3.3 cases per 1000 under-five children, 4.0 cases per 1000 under-five children and finally 4.5 cases per 1000 under-five children respectively. Females were the most affected by malaria in the first 2 years. Cases for males only exceeded that of females in the year 2017. All the cases for both sex categories were increasing starting from year 2015 to year 2017 with an exception for the female category as the number of cases remained the same from 2016 – 2017. Research is needed to investigate why under-five children and pregnant women are more vulnerable to malaria especially in rural areas.