Prevalence of Malaria in Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in a Rural and an Urban Hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

A total of 400 pregnant women, 200 from Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), 200 from Bori General Hospital (BGH) and 100 non- pregnant women used as control were examined for malaria parasitemia by staining their blood films with Giemsa stain. The prevalence of malaria among the pregnant women from BMSH and BGH are 55(27.50%) and 70(35%) respectively, and the prevalence among the non pregnant women was 15%. Prevalence of malaria by age groups showed that the most predisposed age groups in BMSH are 26-30 yrs (13.0%) and BGH 21-25 yrs (19.0%) respectively. There was high prevalence of malaria among pregnant women in the first trimester from both hospitals, BMSH (21.5%) and BGH 60(30.0%) respectively. Statistically, using Chi-square p>0.05 there was no significant difference in the prevalence of malaria among the pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in BMSH and BGH. The prevalence of malaria by haemoglobin (Hb), pregnant women with Hb less 11 g/dL in BMSH had malaria prevalence of 34.5% and those attending BGH had 35.3% .Those with Hb more than 11 g/dL from BMSH had 42.1% and BGH,34.5%; using Chi-square p>0.05 there was no significant difference between both groups in both hospitals. The parasite density results were, 20.0% and 22.5% had low parasite density, 6.5% and 10.0% had moderate parasite density, while1.0% and 2.5% had high parasite density among pregnant women from BMSH and BGH respectively. Malaria, particularly in pregnancy is still a health problem to overcome in malaria endemic region such as the Sub Saharan Africa.