Prevalence of Malaria during Pregnancy and Antimalarial Intervention in an Urban Secondary Health Care Facility in Southern Nigeria
Objective: To investigate the prevalence of malaria during pregnancy and antimalarial interventions in an urban secondary health care facility. Subjects and Methods: Of 432 pregnant women who delivered or were attending an antenatal clinic in a secondary health care facility in Benin City, Nigeria, 199 were recruited for the study. Demographic data were obtained from the pregnant women at delivery, and maternal peripheral, placental, and cord blood samples were collected for microscopy. Among the antenatal clinic attendees, a questionnaire was used to assess their antimalarial preventive measures. Results: Of the 199 pregnant women, 60 (30%) reported that they had had malaria during the preceding 3 months, and a majority of them (85%) used chloroquine. Almost all reported the drug was efficacious (98%) and well tolerated (80%). Only 18 (13%), 14 (10%), and 2 (1%) of the women had positive maternal peripheral, placental, and cord blood parasitaemia, respectively. The geometric mean (± SD) numbers of malaria parasites per microliter were 636.06 ± 1,450.11 in peripheral blood, 4,250.36 ± 13,866.01 in placental blood, and 59.50 ± 27.58 in umbilical cord blood. Only 31 (12%) and 13 (5%) of antenatal women believed in the efficacy of insecticide-treated bed nets or sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine-based intermittent preventive therapy as antimalarial preventive measures, respectively, while 23 (9%) and 31 (12%), respectively, reported they currently use them. Conclusions: Despite the common occurrence of malaria during pregnancy, there was a limited knowledge and use of the recommended antimalarial interventions by pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of this health care facility. There is, therefore, an urgent need to increase the implementation of antimalarial interventions during pregnancy.