Malaria in Shorkot garrison- a four years experience report

ABSTRACT

To study the frequency of malaria in Shorkot Garrison, and the clinical features and laboratory findings in patients caused by various Plasmodium species. This observational study was carried out in Department of Pathology in collaboration with Department of Medicine and Department of Paediatrics, Pakistan Air Force Hospital Shorkot during the period from January 2007 to December 2010. One thousand and fifty three patients were included in the study. These subjects were having positive malarial parasite slides. Patients were admitted and their clinical features and laboratory parameters were recorded. Out of 10405 clinically suspected cases of malaria, only 1053 [10.12%] were found to be positive for malarial parasite. Eighty four percent cases were males and 16% were females. Their mean age was 25.6 +/- 12 years. Out of 1053 patients, 775 [73.5%] were having Plasmodium vivax, 226[21.5%] were P falciparum and 52 [5.0%] were with mixed infection. The high rate of infection was between May to October. The predominant symptom was fever [100%] followed by rigors and chills [93%], body aches [82%] and sweating [84%]. Hepatomegaly was found in 8.2% cases while splenomegaly in 55%. Among the haematological findings, anaemia was found in 66.3% cases of malaria, while thrombocytopenia was detected in 65.8% patients. Jaundice was found in most cases of P falciparum. No case of P malariae and P ovale infection observed in the study. Malaria Parasite index was found to be between 0.1-5.0%. The frequency of malaria was 10.12%. Anaemia and thrombocytopenia was very common in patients of malaria. It is suggested that index of suspicion for malaria should be kept high in dealing with patients with fever along with anaemia and thrombocytopaenia