Seasonal distribution and seven year trend of malaria in North West Tigrai: 2012–2018, Ethiopia; 2019

BACKGROUND: Malaria is a serious public concern in Ethiopia, 75% of the land and 60% of the population are exposed to the disease. The disease has been consistently reported as one of the top three leading causes of outpatient visits, admissions, and deaths among all age group in Ethiopia. However, there is no published data to date regarding the trends of malaria in north western Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. Hence, knowing the trends of malaria prevalence in this area is essential to design appropriate interventions against the disease. METHODS: Institutional based retrospective study was conducted to determine trends in prevalence of malaria from documented laboratory logbooks at Suhul General Hospital, northwestern Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. All recorded malaria cases from January 2012 to December 2018 were carefully reviewed and analyzed from the laboratory logbooks. Additionally, any malaria intervention activities applied in the area were collected by a checklist. Beside, data related to temperature and rainfalls were collected from metrological office of Shire-endasilasie town. RESULTS: During the seven years (2012–2018) data, a total of 71,986 blood films were requested for malaria diagnosis in Suhul Hospital and 5010(6.96%) microscopically confirmed malaria cases reported in the study area with fluctuating trends. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax were the dominant parasites detected, which accounted (2516; 50.2%, 2181; 43.5%) respectively. However, individuals aged ≥15 years (3628; 72.4%) and male participants (3142, 62.7%) were found highly infected with malaria parasites. Despite the yearly abundance of malaria cases, highest prevalence was reported in autumn (September–November) in the study area. CONCLUSIONS: Malaria is still a major health dilemma Northwestern Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax were unmoving predominant parasite reported in the study area. Overall, trend of malaria over the years showed no significant reduction or increment. So, strong scaling up of the community should going on towards transmission, prevention and control activities of malaria in view of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax.