Description
Prevalence of cerebral malaria among young children in paediatric wards of General Hospital Idah, Kogi state from January 2017 – December 2022.
Abstract
Cerebral malaria is one of the most severe and life-threatening health problems young children are likely to encounter and this has been a great challenge in the healthcare sector, thus leading to various strategies to curb this illness. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of cerebral malaria among young children in paediatric wards of General Hospital, Idah. It utilized administrative records of patients admitted to paediatric wards of General Hospital, Idah from January 2017- December 2022. A total of 112 records were sourced and investigations were made using patients’ background. Analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and hypotheses were tested using chi-square test tool. The highest prevalence of cerebral malaria was in 2022 with 23 patients and the highest was seen in the month of August, 2022 with a total of 5 (4.5%) patients, while the lowest incidence was in the years 2019 and 2021 with 16 patients (14.3%) each. It was also found that there was a high prevalence of cerebral malaria among children in the third quarter of the year with 48 incidences (42.8%), followed by the second quarter of the year with 30 incidences (26.8%), while the least prevalence occurs in the last quarter of the year with 8 incidences (7.1%). In conclusion, the findings have observed that there was no significant relationship between the prevalence of cerebral malaria and its treatment options among young children. Hence, the prevalence of cerebral malaria does not significantly influence the treatment among young children. It is therefore recommended that there should be prompt treatment of malaria using an appropriate line of treatment and mothers should report to the hospital if they notice any sign of illness in their child or ward.
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