Assessment of Platelet Count in Malaria Suspected Patients and Associated Factors in Arba Minch Health Center, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Malaria infection is a major public health problem and cause of morbidity and mortality intropical and subtropical regions of the world. It has been consistently reported as one of the three leadingcauses of morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia. Changes in hematological parameters are likely to be
influenced by any disease condition including endemic diseases, such as malaria. Anemia andthrombocytopenia are the most frequent malaria associated hematological complications and they play amajor role in malaria pathogenesis. The presence of thrombocytopenia in malaria positive patients hasbecome a highly sensitive clinical marker for malaria diagnosis. significant correlation between malariaand the presence of thrombocytopenia is mandatory before taking it as a hematological parameter of thedisease. However in Ethiopia the relation between thrombocytopenia and malaria pathogenesis is not wellstudied.
Objective: To assess platelet count among malaria suspected patients and associated factors in ArbaMinch Health Center, Arba Minch, Ethiopia.
.Methodology: Aninstitutional based cross sectional study was conducted in Arba Minch Health centerfrom February to April, 2015. Data was collected from 424 malaria suspected patients that came duringthe 3 months of data collection period. Using estimation of single population proportion formula andsequential sampling technique we selected 424 study participants. In addition data on sex, age, occupationand associated factors was collected using structured checklist.Data was entered and analyzed by SPSS
Version 20.Frequency and cross tabulation was conductedto describe relevant variables in relation to theoutcome variables; bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to identifysignificant predictors based on p-value less than 0.05 with 95% confidence level.
Result: Among 424 malaria suspected patients 117 (27.6%) [95% CI 23.3 - 31.9] were positive formalaria and the rest 307(72.4%) [95%CI 68.1- 76.7] were negative. Prevalence of thrombocytopenia was36.1% and among this 19.8% were malaria positive. The mean platelet count in Plasmodium vivaxwas163,000/μl (SD 115,000) with a range of 18,000-403,000/μl as against Plasmodium falciparum malaria128,000(SD72, 324/μl) with a range of 33,000-311,000/μl). A significant reduction of platelet count was
seen in this study (AOR 15.7, P<0.001) in malaria positive patients than that of malaria negative patients.Among the associated factor being positive for bacterial infection [AOR= 2.14 (95%CI 1.22-3.76)](P=0.008), malaria positivity [AOR=15.8 (95%CI 8.7-28.66)] (p <0.001) have a statistically significantcorrelation to thrombocytopenia.
Conclusion & Recommendation: Thrombocytopenia is a common hematological finding inmalaria. Reduced number of platelet count was noticed in 71.8% of cases of malaria. So this study alsoconnotes the importance of thrombocytopenia in malaria infection
Description
Keywords
Arba Minch Health center