Heterogeneous decrease in malaria prevalence in children over a six-year period in south-western Uganda

Malaria Journal

Research

Carolyn Nabasumba¹  Yap Boum²  Eleanor Turyakira³  Pierre De Beaudrap⁴  Francesco Grandesso⁵  Birgit Schramm⁵  Jean-François Etard⁶ 

[1] Epicentre Mbarara Research Base, Mbarara, Uganda;Epicentre Mbarara Research Base, Mbarara, Uganda;Epicentre, Paris, France;Epicentre Mbarara Research Base, Mbarara, Uganda;Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda;Epicentre Mbarara Research Base, Mbarara, Uganda;UMI 233, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Université Montpellier 1, Montpellier, France;Epicentre, Paris, France;UMI 233, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Université Montpellier 1, Montpellier, France;Epicentre, Paris, France;

关键词: Malaria;    Malaria Transmission;    Blood Smear;    Malaria Infection;    Rapid Diagnostic Test;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-10-132

 received in 2011-02-15, accepted in 2011-05-18,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMalaria is a major public health problem, especially for children. However, recent reports suggest a decline in the malaria burden. The aim of this study was to assess the change in the prevalence of malaria infection among children below five years of age between 2004 and 2010 in a mesoendemic area of Uganda and to analyse the risk factors of malaria infection.MethodsTwo cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2004 and in 2010 at the end of the rainy and dry seasons to measure the prevalence of P. falciparum infection among children less than five years of age. Rapid diagnostic tests and blood smears were used to diagnose malaria infection. In 2010, sampling was stratified by urban and rural areas. In each selected household, knowledge of malaria and bed nets, and bed net ownership and use, were assessed.ResultsIn 2004 and 2010, respectively, a total of 527 and 2,320 (999 in the urban area and 1,321 in rural areas) children less than five years old were enrolled. Prevalence of malaria infection declined from 43% (95% CI: 34-52) in 2004, to 23% (95% CI: 17-30) in rural areas in 2010 and 3% (95% CI: 2-5) in the urban area in 2010. From the rainy to dry season in 2010, prevalence decreased from 23% to 10% (95% CI: 6-14) in rural areas (P = 0.001) and remained stable from 3% to 4% (95% CI: 1-7) in the urban area (P = 0.9). The proportion of households reporting ownership and use of at least one bed net increased from 22.9% in 2004 to 64.7% in the urban area and 44.5% in rural areas in 2010 (P < 0.001). In 2010, the risk of malaria infection was consistently associated with child age and household wealth. In rural areas, malaria infection was also associated with geographic factors.ConclusionsThis study reports a significant drop in the prevalence of malaria infection among children below five years of age, paralleled by an uptake in bed-net use. However, prevalence remains unacceptably high in rural areas and is strongly associated with poverty.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© DeBeaudrap et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.