DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i12.010

Pages: 1117-1120

Malaria is a major cause of death in tropical and sub-tropical countries, killing each year over 1 million people globally. Kailali and Kanchanpur district of far western region is endemic for malaria and poses a diagnostic challenge in the medical community. Evaluation of recent epidemiological status of malaria situation in the two endemic districts of far western region of Nepal with high transmission of malaria and to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the people in prevention and treatment for malaria infection. A cross-sectional study was carried out with volunteer participation of suspected malaria patients seeking care at the Malakheti Hospital, Seti Zone, a health care centers located in malaria endemic districts in Nepal. Conventional Giemsa stained thick and thin blood smears prepared from finger prick blood were examined following standard protocols. A questionnaire was designed to obtain patient age, sex, ethnic group, disease symptoms, and prevention and control measures. SPSS was used for statistical analysis of the data. Out of total 800 samples examined for the malarial infections from which 449(66.1%) and 351(43.9%) were male and female respectively. Out of which there was a prevalence of 88 (11%) malaria infections in the study in which P. vivax (85) and P. falciparum (2) and combination of both (1). In sex wise distribution male showed the higher prevalence in compared to the female that of 13.8 times higher with P value of 0.002 which is highly significant. There was no significant relation in the ethnic group while age group 20-29 showed the highest infection as compared to other age group. In spite of different efforts by the government this place still remains to be endemic for malaria. To improve the malaria morbidity in the districts, health education of the most marginalized people through audio visual methods may be beneficial. A time interval diagnosis is needed for the improvement of the situation in these regions.