Prevalence of <i>Plasmodium</i> Parasitaemia among Blood Donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, efforts are being intensified to control and possibly eliminate malaria. Transfusion transmitted Malaria unfortunately still occurs commonly in malaria endemic countries such as Nigeria and may continue to hamper efforts at control of malaria because blood donors are not routinely screened for malaria before donation. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of Plasmodium Parasitaemia among blood donors who presented in our institution between 2012 and 2014, using light microscopy. Among the 200 donors studied, 135 (67.5%) were infected. Males (97.5%) were statistically more than females (2.5%) but infection rate was higher among the female population (100% as against 66.7% in males), with this difference being statistically significant. All donors were infected with Plasmodium falciparum with the majority of the donors having mild to moderate degrees of Parasitaemia. Women (52.5%) and children (17.5%) formed the bulk of recipients for which blood was donated. The high prevalence of Plasmodium Parasitaemia among blood donors in Port Harcourt highlights the need for more efforts to be targeted at preventing transmission of malaria via blood transfusion as this will ultimately contribute to reduction in the incidence of malaria and indeed its control/elimination in Nigeria.