An update of malaria infection and anaemia in adults in Buea, Cameroon

BACKGROUND: Anaemia is caused by many factors in developing countries including malaria. We compared anaemia rates in patients with malaria parasitaemia to that of patients without malaria parasitaemia. FINDINGS: A cross-sectional study was carried out from November 2007 to July 2008 in health units in Buea, Cameroon. Adult patients with fever or history of fever were included in the study. Information on socio-demographic variables and other variables was collected using a questionnaire. Malaria parasitaemia status was determined by microscopy using Giemsa stained thick blood smears. Haemoglobin levels were determined by the microhaematocrit technique. The study population consisted of 250 adult patients with a mean age of 29.31 years (SD = 10.63) and 59.44% were females. 25.60% of the patients had malaria parasitaemia while 14.80% had anaemia (haemoglobin < 11 g/dl). Logistic regression revealed that those with malaria parasitaemia had more anaemia compared to those without malaria parasitaemia(OR = 4.33, 95%CI = 1.21-15.43, p = 0.02) after adjusting for age, sex, rural residence, socioeconomic status, use of antimalarials, use of insecticide treated nets(ITN) and white blood cell count. CONCLUSIONS: In adult patients with fever in this setting, malaria parasitaemia contributes to anaemia and is of public health impact. Our results also provide a baseline prevalence for malaria parasitaemia in febrile adults in health units in this setting.