Malaria species in Sokoto, Northwestern Nigeria: The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

Abstract

Background: Malaria is a serious public health problem in many parts of the world, especially in Sub Saharan Africa where Nigeria bears the bulk of the disease. In Nigeria, though Anopheles gambiae is the most dominant species across the country, Anopheles arabiences is the most prevalent in the northern part of Nigeria like Sokoto, while the Anopheles males are predominant in mangrove coastal zones of the country. There are now known five different species of Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria havoc in the globe; Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum), P. ovale, P. malaria, P. vivax and P. knowlesi but, out of these species, P. falciparum is the most prevalent and virulent that accounts for about 95 % of all malaria infections in Nigeria. The significance of P.malaria , P. ovale and P. vivax are neglected as non- P. falciparum parasites, which are currently invisible to most public health authorities in Sokoto and Nigeria at large. Aim: Based on those challenges, this study aims to determine this existing Plasmodium species in Sokoto and establish the gold standard malaria diagnosis. In our knowledge, this is the first cross sectional laboratory based descriptive study of plasmodium species in Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria. Result: Our result showed that P. falciparum, P. ovale, P. malaria, and P. vivax are present in Sokoto. Conclusion: Based on our finding, we recommend malaria microscopy as the gold standard of malaria evidence based diagnosis.