Premium
Submicroscopic malaria infections in pregnant women from six departments in Haiti
Author(s) -
Elbadry Maha A.,
Tagliamonte Massimiliano S.,
Raccurt Christian P.,
Lemoine Jean F.,
Existe Alexandre,
Boncy Jacques,
Weppelmann Thomas A.,
Dame John B.,
Okech Bernard A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1111/tmi.12909
Subject(s) - malaria , medicine , pregnancy , epidemiology , tropical medicine , transmission (telecommunications) , plasmodium falciparum , obstetrics , cross sectional study , marital status , population , environmental health , immunology , biology , pathology , genetics , electrical engineering , engineering
Objectives To describe the epidemiology of malaria in pregnancy in Haiti. Methods Cross‐sectional study among pregnant women in six departments of Haiti. After obtaining informed consent, whole blood samples and demographic surveys were collected to investigate malaria prevalence, anaemia and socio‐behavioural risk factors for infection, respectively. A total of 311 pregnant women were screened for Plasmodium falciparum infection using a rapid diagnostic test ( RDT ), microscopy and a novel, quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction method ( qRT ‐ PCR ). Results Overall, 1.2% (4/311) of pregnant women were tested positive for malaria infection by both microscopy and RDT . However, using the qRT ‐ PCR , 16.4% (51/311) of pregnant women were positive. The prevalence of malaria infection varied with geographical locations ranging between 0% and 46.4%. Additionally, 53% of pregnant women had some form of anaemia; however, no significant association was found between anaemia and submicroscopic malaria infection. The socio‐behavioural risk factors identified to be protective of malaria infection were marital status ( P < 0.05) and travel within one month prior to screening ( P < 0.05). Conclusion This study is the first to document the high prevalence of submicroscopic malaria infections among pregnant women in Haiti and identify social and behavioural risk factors for disease transmission .