Malaria Incidence and Trend of Prevalence in and around Anger Gute Town, Western Ethiopia

Aim: The study aims to assess malaria incidence, trend of prevalence and associated risk factors in the study area.

Study Design: A cohort of 41,996 residents in five kebeles (the lowest government administrative unit) in 8,750 households was followed for malaria incidence study. Whereas, facility-based cross-sectional study was undertaken for malaria prevalence trend analysis.

Place and Duration of Study: In and around Anger Gute town, Western Ethiopia. The malaria incidence study was undertaken for seven months from June to December 2018.Whereas, the malaria prevalence trend analysis was carried out for six years from 2013-2018.

Methodology: To determine the malaria incidence, cases coming from purposefully selected five kebeles to three health posts and one health center were diagnosed in which a total of 462 respondents participated. Parasitological data were collected using malaria parasite diagnostic tools. Structured questionnaires were used to assess the malaria incidence associated risk factors. In addition, to determine malaria trend prevalence retrospective malaria data were taken from Anger Gute health center. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 20.0. P values of less or equal to 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: Of 462 blood samples taken from febrile patients, 26.4% had Plasmodium infection. Among positive cases, 64.75 %, 32 % and 3.75% of malaria was caused by P. falciparum, P. vivax and both P. falciparum and P. vivax infections respectively. Malaria incidence was found to be 0.343 %. No significant difference in incidence of malaria was found by sex and age categories of study participants (P>0.05). Incidence of malaria was significantly lower in urban kebeles compared to rural kebeles (COR= 0.359 and significantly associated with presence of stagnant water nearby living house (AOR=186.3, P=0.000), utilization of bed net (≥0.08, P=0.000), and IRS (AOR=0.056, P=0.03).The overall malaria incidence was 3.43 per 1000 population at risk of the disease during the study period.Whereas, the six years retrospective data showed decrease in malaria prevalence trend from 2014 - 2018 as compared to 2013.

Conclusion: Incidence of malaria was 3.43 per 1000 population at risk of the disease during the study period and was lower than recent incidence of malaria reported from Ethiopia. The six years retrospective data showed decrease in malaria prevalence trend from 2014 - 2018 as compared to 2013.