Malaria Parasitaemia among Different Haemoglobin Genotypes in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja

Abstract

Malaria is a common and life-threatening disease in many tropical and subtropical areas and transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquitoes with major impact on global public health. It is endemic in Nigeria with up to 97% of the population at risk. Malaria results to 60% outpatient visits to healthcare facilities,25% childhood death, and11% maternal death. Haemoglobin genotype variants have been implicated in reducing malaria parasite replication within the red blood cells and enhance splenic clearance in malaria parasitized erythrocytes. The study of the Malaria parasitaemia among different haemoglobin genotypes in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is aimed at determining the effect of haemoglobin genotypes on malaria parasitaemia among residents in FCT. (2mls) of venous blood was collected from 384 randomly selected residents. Determination of malaria parasitaemia was by Microscopy and the cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis was used for heamoglobin genotype. A structured questionnaire created with Epi-Info version 7 for data collection and analysis. Results of 187 volunteers with malaria parasitaemia indicated that: malaria parasitaemia was more in female (58.8%) and male (41.4%); age groups of 0-10 (42.0%), 11-20 (35.2%) and 21-30(14.5%) and 91.7% within age range of 0-30 years of the studied group; in Gwagwalada (24.6%), followed by Bwari (21.4%), Kuje (18.7%), Kwali (17.7%), Abaji (15.5%) and was least in AMAC (2.1%) and severe ((+++) (> 10,000/ μL)) in blood genotype AA(47.4%) than in AS(0.0%), AC(0.0%) and least in SS(0.0%). It was concluded that malaria and the haemoglobin S gene were endemic in FCT and variant Haemoglobin C and S could confer protection to malaria parasitaemia.