Place of malaria in the etiologies of febrile attacks in children in a conflict area zone: Case of department of pediatric regional hospital of Timbuktu

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Malaria, a public health problem in tropical countries, depends on several factors, some of which are social and environmental. In Mali in the Sahel zone, a socio-security crisis has prevailed in recent years. It was therefore interesting to study the epidemiology of this condition in situation. Objective: To determine the frequency of malaria among febrile syndromes in children aged 1 to 59 months in the pediatric ward of the Regional Hospital of Timbuktu. Material and methods: the study was longitudinal retrospective descriptive for a period from January 1 to December 31, 2015. The data were collected with fact sheets and consultation records. They were captured and analyzed on the Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) software version 21. Results: a total of 789 children hospitalized, 276 children had a febrile syndrome (35%). During the study period, we collected 180 cases of malaria, with a positive biological examination. The hospital frequency of malaria was 22.8% (180/789) and a frequency in febrile syndromes of 65.2% (180/276) of malaria cases. Of these 180 cases, 147 cases of uncomplicated malaria (81.7%) and 33 cases of severe malaria (18.3%) were found. In 34.8%, the etiology of febrile syndromes was other than malaria. Seasonal variation in malaria was found in terms of months of the year, peaking in September. The hospital lethality was 1.1% in our series. Conclusion: Malaria was the leading febrile syndromes among children under 5 in hospitals in Tombouctou