DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i05.006

Pages: 1838-1841

ABH secretor status has been associated with a number of infectious diseases. This study was carried out to determine whether secretion of ABH antigens was associated falciparum infection. A total of 600 individuals (284 males and 316 females) of age ≥16 years participated in this study after clinical examination and informed consent was obtained. The participants consisted of three groups. The first group consisted of 200 patients with symptomatic malaria. The second group consisted of 200 individuals with asymptomatic malaria while the third group (control group) consisted of 200 apparently healthy individuals without malaria as of the time of investigation. Blood and saliva samples were taken from each participant for examination of malaria parasite and secretor status respectively. Thick and thin Giemsa stained blood smear were prepared for malaria parasite examination and identification. Secretor status was determined among the participants using haemagglutination inhibition technique. The results showed that the proportion of non-secretors in the symptomatic malaria group (30.5%) was significantly higher than that of non-secretors in the control group (20.5%) (ᵡ2 = 5.264, df = 1, p = 0.022). The proportion of non-secretors in the asymptomatic malaria group (26.5%) was not significantly different from that of non-secretors in the control group (20.5%) (ᵡ2 = 2.003, df = 1, p = 0.157). We conclude that Non-secretion of ABH substances is associated with acute falciparium malaria.