Assessment of platelet count in Malaria suspected Patients and Associated Factors in Arba Minch Health center, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
Creators: name: Mikre, Kidist
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2015

description: Background: Malaria infection is a major public health problem and cause of morbidity and mortality in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It has been consistently reported as one of the three leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia. Changes in hematological parameters are likely to be influenced by any disease condition including endemic diseases, such as malaria. Anemia and thrombocytopenia are the most frequent malaria associated hematological complications and they play a major role in malaria pathogenesis. The presence of thrombocytopenia in malaria positive patients has become a highly sensitive clinical marker for malaria diagnosis. significant correlation between malaria and the presence of thrombocytopenia is mandatory before taking it as a hematological parameter of the disease. However in Ethiopia the relation between thrombocytopenia and malaria pathogenesis is not well studied. Objective: To assess platelet count among malaria suspected patients and associated factors in Arba Minch Health Center, Arba Minch, Ethiopia. .Methodology: Aninstitutional based cross sectional study was conducted in Arba Minch Health center from February to April, 2015. Data was collected from 424 malaria suspected patients that came during the 3 months of data collection period. Using estimation of single population proportion formula and sequential sampling technique we selected 424 study participants. In addition data on sex, age, occupation and associated factors was collected using structured checklist.Data was entered and analyzed by SPSS Version 20.Frequency and cross tabulation was conductedto describe relevant variables in relation to the outcome variables; bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify significant predictors based on p-value less than 0.05 with 95% confidence level. Result: Among 424 malaria suspected patients 117 (27.6%) [95% CI 23.3 - 31.9] were positive for malaria and the rest 307(72.4%) [95%CI 68.1- 76.7] were negative. Prevalence of thrombocytopenia was 36.1% and among this 19.8% were malaria positive. The mean platelet count in Plasmodium vivaxwas 163,000/μl (SD 115,000) with a range of 18,000-403,000/μl as against Plasmodium falciparum malaria 128,000(SD72, 324/μl) with a range of 33,000-311,000/μl). A significant reduction of platelet count was seen in this study (AOR 15.7, P&lt;0.001) in malaria positive patients than that of malaria negative patients. Among the associated factor being positive for bacterial infection [AOR= 2.14 (95%CI 1.22-3.76)] (P=0.008), malaria positivity [AOR=15.8 (95%CI 8.7-28.66)] (p &lt;0.001) have a statistically significant correlation to thrombocytopenia. Conclusion &amp; Recommendation: Thrombocytopenia is a common hematological finding in malaria. Reduced number of platelet count was noticed in 71.8% of cases of malaria. So this study also connotes the importance of thrombocytopenia in malaria infection