Malaria Epidemiological and clinical aspects among school age childrend in the Reference Centre of the Bamako district's Municipality IV

Abstract

We carried out a retrospective study from February 2, 2009 to February 1, 2010 a survey on clinical and epidemiological aspects of malaria in children from 5 to 12 years in the Health Referral Center of Commune IV of the district of Bamako. The investigation was carried out on 836 children from whom 302 cases of malaria were tested positive. The intermittent fever was the most observed clinical signs for medical visits (51%). Clinical and parasitological parameters were assessed in each child. The thick smear or Rapid Diagnosis Test (RDT) has been performed for malaria testing. The prevalence of positive thick smear was 33.8% (156/461) and for RDT 38.9% (146/375). Prevalence of severe malaria was 22.8% of all cases vs 77.2% of uncomplicated malaria. The overall rate of recovery was 97.7% from which 74.8% (226/302) were treated with Artemisininbased combination therapies (ACTs). This work shows that malaria healthcare policy should be more improved also in 5 to 12 years age group category which is not currently targeted for free malaria care delivering by the National Malaria Control Program as in less than 5 years old children and pregnant women.