| Popis: |
Background: Malaria is a parasitic disease caused by various species of the blood parasite plasmodium and of all the parasitic diseases, malaria has the highest prevalence and mortality with an estimated 247 million cases and 619,000 deaths recorded worldwide as of 2021. Malaria causes febrile illness with several changes in blood cell parameters. Some of these changes include leucopenia, thrombocytopenia, and anaemia. If these changes could be correlated with the degree of parasitaemia, it can serve as a guide to physicians when treating malaria. This study was therefore aimed at correlating haematological parameters with levels of parasitemia during malaria infection. Method: The study was a cross-sectional study involving 89 malaria positive patients. About 5ml of blood was collected from each participant who gave his or her informed consent to partake in the study. A full blood count was performed on their samples to determine their haematological parameters using a haematology auto-analyzer. A parasite count was also performed via microscopy to determine the degree of parasitaemia. The data obtained from the study was entered into a database and statistically analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 and Microsoft Excel 2016. Results: the outcome of the study showed that, there was a correlation between the various haematological parameters and degree of parasitaemia. Regression analysis also showed that changes in the various hematological parameters (independent variables) resulted in various degrees of changes in parasitaemia (dependent variable). Conclusion:The linear relationship (correlation) between WBC and MCH were the only significant ones at 95% and 99% confidence interval respectively based on a two-tail t-test. Also, based on the regression analysis, the changes caused by WBC and PLT were the only significant changes at 95% confidence level in a two-tailed t-test. |
