Mohammad Iqbal Yasinzai, Juma Khan Kakarsulemankhel.
Incidence of human malaria infection in central areas of Balochistan: Mastung and Khuzdar.
Rawal Med J Jan ;32(2):176-8.

Objective : To determine the incidence of malarial parasites in human population of Mastung and Khuzdar areas of Pakistan. Patients and Methods: Malarial parasites were identified in the blood slides of suspected patients of the disease from July, 2004 to June, 2006 in 7852 subjects. Results : Out of 7852 suspected cases of malaria, 2092 (26.64 %) were found to be positive for malarial parasite. In Mastung, out of 3644 suspected cases, 896 (24.58 %) were found to be positive for malarial parasiteswith 52.67 % (472/896) identified as P. vivax and 47.32 % (424/ 896) as P. falciparum infection. The highest rate of infections (73.13 %) was recoded in August while lowest rate of infection (24.27%) was noted in October. In Khuzdar, out of 4208 suspected cases, 1196 (28.42 %) were found to be positive for malarial parasites with 69.89 % (836/1196) identified as P. vivax. and 30.10 % (360/1196) as P. falciparum infection. The highest rate of infections (84.84%) was recoded in December while the lowest rate of infection (56.06%) was noted in October. There was no case of Plasmodium malariae and P. ovale infection observed in the present study. Conclusion : An over all prevalence rate of 62.52 % of P. vivax was seen. There is no association between types of infection and age of subjects. This high prevalence pose a serious public health threat. (Rawal Med J 2007;32:176-178).

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