Malaria trends in Silt'i district from 2009-2015 and current childhood malaria in K'ibbet hospital, south-central Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND

Regular evaluation of the magnitude of malaria in children in a given locality is important to devise targeted control interventions. This study was conducted to assess current malaria infection among children (0-14 yrs) and trends in malaria between 2009 and 2015 in Silt'i district in south-central Ethiopia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Febrile children (body temperature ≥37.5°C) visiting the K'ibbet hospital between September 2015 and January 2016 were enrolled. Finger-prick blood samples were collected, smears prepared, Giemsa-stained and examined. In addition, past (2009-2015) retrospective malaria data was reviewed. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data.

RESULTS

In the current cross-sectional survey, 43 (4.3%) children (n=1007) were diagnosed with malaria. Of these, 35 (81.4%) were and only 8 (18.6%) . All cases were mono-infections. Concerning health data on record, overall 47,467 malaria-slide-confirmed cases were recorded (45.8% and 54.2% ), with a substantial decline in malaria between the baseline in 2009 (15,141 cases) and 2015 (821 cases).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings demonstrated that malaria in children was continuously declining in the study area. However, control interventions must be maintained and scaled-up to sustainably protect children as well as the general population and eventually eliminate the disease from the locality and country as a whole.