© 1998 by Oxford University Press
brief-report |
Malaria Prevalence and Outcome in the In-patients of the Paediatric Department of the State Specialists Hospital (SSH), Maiduguri, Nigeria
*Paediatric Department of State Specialists Hospital Maiduguri Borno State, Nigeria, PMB, 1608
**Medical Faculty (Charlié) of the Humboldt-University Schumannstr, 20/21, 10098 Berlin, Germany
Correspondence: Dr Sabine Gellert, HOD Paediatrics Department, SSH Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, PMB 1608. Tel. 00234 76 342229
Of 4651 admissions between February 1995 and February 1996, 1043 had a presumed diagnosis of malaria. Six hundred and twenty-seven cases were confirmed by thick blood film examinations. The highest prevalence was in October (124/480 admissions) and the lowest in March (12/303). Sixty-five children died while 562 survived 12 with defects. The first treatment in 422 children was chioroqulne, in 143 quinine, in 59 halofantrin, and in three pyrimethamine with sulfadoxine (Fansidar®). 23/422 patients started on chloroquine were switched to halofantrine, two to quinine. A higher mortality was associated with coma, convulsions, hepatosplenomegaly, pulmonary congestion, Jaundice, haemoglobinuria, bladder paralysis, anuria. Anaemia and fever were more severe and hypoglycaemla more frequent in children who died than in children who survived (packed cell volume 18.5±7.1 per cent vs. 25.6±7.6 per cent, p<0.001; temperature 39±1.1°C vs. 38.7±O.9°C, p<0.05; random blood sugar <40 mg/100 ml; 76 vs. 22 per cent, p<0.01). There was no difference in the median age, pretreatment duration, and prevalence of diarrhoea and sickle cell disease. The male to female ratio was 1.5:1 in the surviving children vs. 1:1.03 In the dead.