Trend analysis of malaria prevalence in Raya Azebo district, Northern Ethiopia: a retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: Malaria remains still the leading cause of outpatient visits and death in Ethiopia. However, little is known about its trend in the study area. Hence, this study was aimed to assess 6-year (2011–2016) trend of malaria prevalence. A retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted to assess 6-year trends of malaria prevalence in Raya Azebo district, North Ethiopia. Malaria case recorded from 2011 to 2016 was extracted using similar format. RESULT: A total of 29,930 malaria cases were reported from 2011 to 2016. Of these, 23,018 were confirmed cases while, 6912 were reported as clinical cases. Plasmodium falciparum (56.9%) was the most dominated species. Malaria was reported in all age group and both sexes with highest in male and > 15 age categories. The highest peak malaria distribution was occurred in spring season. The overall trends of malaria case were increased in the past 6 years (2011–2016) with exception slightly decreased from 2012 to 2013. Therefore, Strong effort is needed to improve malaria prevention and controlling method in study area.