INCIDENCE OF MALARIA IN THE URBAN AND PERI URBAN AREAS OF DISTRICT CHARSADDA PAKISTAN

Abstract

Malaria is one of the most devastating diseases in the world. This study was conducted to investigate the incidence of malaria in the urban and peri urban areas of district Charsadda.  A total 1896 malaria patients were examined from August to September 2012. Out of 1896 samples, 1084 were collected from laboratories and 812 from the hospitals. Among the total, 653 were male and 590 were female patients. 1616 and 280 patients were infected with Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium faciparum, respectively. The highest rate of infection (39.13%) was found in the patients with the age 31 years and above. However the infection was less common in the age group of 1 – 10 years (15.08%). Similarly the infection was more common in illiterate people (54.11%). Seasonal variation was also observed with 550 cases recorded in August and 1346 in September and among them 1400 from peri-urban and 496 from urban areas. It was found that infection with P. vivax was more common. Therefore, it can be concluded that the incidence of malaria is comparatively high in the peri-urban areas than in urban areas.