Abstract:
Malaria during pregnancy is a major health problem in endemic countries with clinical consequences
including death of both mother and child. In Nigeria, statistics shows that as many as 300,000 lives especially those of
children and pregnant women are lost annually to malaria. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of
malaria parasites among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the Mararaba Medical Centre, Mararaba-
Nasarawa State and National Hospital, Abuja. The study was conducted between January and May, 2016. A total of
four hundred and thirty seven (437) respondents were tested for malaria using microscopy and Care Start Malaria
HRP2 (Pf) rapid test kit; 142(32.5%) patients tested positive for Microscopy and 98 (22.4%) for Rapid Diagnostic Test;
giving an overall prevalence rate of 54.9% in the study population. Pregnant women between the ages of 21-29
recorded the highest prevalence rate of 59.2% (microscopy) and 56.1% (RDT). According to their marital status, those
married recorded the highest prevalence rate of 76.8% (microscopy) and 86.7% (RDT). Based on their trimester,
women in their second trimester recorded the highest prevalence rate of 56.35% (microscopy) and 59.2% (RDT).
Pregnant women who are self-employed recorded the highest prevalence rate of 49.3% (microscopy) and 52.0%
(RDT) and according to their level of education those in their tertiary education recorded the highest prevalence of
33.8% (microscopy) and 33.7% (RDT). The result showed that Microscopy test as compared to Rapid Diagnostic Test
had a sensitivity and specificity of 90.6% and 84.7% respectively. The Positive Predictive Value (PPV) and Negative
Predictive Value (NPV) were 83.5% and 91.3% respectively with an accuracy of 87.4%. Following the high prevalence
of malaria infection in pregnancy, more efforts are needed in the control of malaria in pregnancy. The people need
public enlightenment in the importance of malaria diagnosis. Malaria should therefore be recognized as a global
priority in health care more so in pregnancy.
