PREVALENCE OF MALARIA AMONG IMO STATE POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS, OMUMA

ABSTRACT One of the dreadful parasitic infections that ravages the lives of the very young and old in Sub-Saharan Africa is Malaria. It is a serious public health problem. Although interventions to curtail and curb it prevalence at various tiers of government, state and federal were enforced, however, such strategy is not well disposed of in the citadel of learning –polytechnic amongst the students This form the basis of the objective of the study and why it is conducted. We examined the prevalence of malaria infection among students of Imo State Polytechnic, Omuma. Blood samples were collected from 60 patients between August 2023 to October 2023. Aged between 15-35 years that visited the Medical centre with complaints and symptoms ranging from headache, body pains, undulating high temperature, nausea and vomiting abdominal cramps etc. Antimalarial drugs were not administered until outcome of laboratory result is available within a short while. A total number of sixty (60) subjects were screened for malaria infection 22 (36.7%) were male while 38 (63.3%) were female. The number of individuals with malaria infection were 52 (86.7%) of the 60 subjects screened for malaria. The prevalence rate of students infected with malaria parasitaemia is 86.7% of the student populace screened in the polytechnic under the study which indicated a high rate of prevalence of malaria. It is therefore exigent to execute strategic interventions through health education in form of seminars/ workshop for the students and ways of prevention and elimination of the vector – anopheles mosquito in the environment.