The Abo Blood Group and Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria in Awash, Metehara and Ziway Areas, Ethiopia.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2008-07-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study aimed at investigating the relationship between blood group type and severe disease in P.falciparum malaria in three Ethiopian malaria endemic localities. A total of 210 cases of malaria (70 severe and 140 uncomplicated) and 190 healthy controls participated in the study. In the severe malaria category, there were 25 (35.7%), 15 (21.4%), 14 (20%) and 16 (22.9%) blood group A, B, AB and O patients respectively. Blood group O was the dominant blood type in both uncomplicated malaria (45.7%) and healthy controls (41.6 %). As compared to the uncomplicated malaria, a case of severe malaria was almost twice as likely to be of type A as to be of type O (O vs. A, odds ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.2007- 0.8789), and more than twice as likely to be of type B as to be of type O (O vs. B, odds ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.1638-0.8973), and in both cases the difference was statically significant (P=0.019 for O vs. A; P= 0.02 for O vs. B). Furthermore, individuals with severe malaria were about seven fold less likely to be of O as to be of type AB (O vs. AB, odds ratio 0.19, 95%; P=0.0005). There was significantly low mean hemoglobin concentration in the severe malaria patients than the uncomplicated malaria and healthy controls (P <.0001). Although the mean parasite density in individuals with severe malaria was higher than in those with uncomplicated malaria, the difference was not significant (P=0.35). Blood group O malaria patients had high mean hemoglobin concentration than those with blood group A, B, or AB, with significant difference only between blood group O and A (P=0.012), and blood group O and B (P=0.050). Furthermore, blood group O malaria patients were found to have a relatively low mean parasite density than patients with either blood group A or AB, but there was no significant difference in both cases (P=0.55 for O vs. A; P= 0.90 for O vs. AB) .The study revealed that on the basis of depressed hemoglobin concentration, patients with blood group O were less prone to severe P.falciparum malaria as compared to patients with blood groups A or B.
Description
Keywords
Malaria, ABO Blood Group, Severe Malaria, Uncomplicated Malaria