Abstract:
Currently, malaria is one of the major diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality
worldwide including Ethiopia. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the
prevalence of malaria and its associated risk factors among febrile patients who visited Gela
Matebia Health Center. A five-year retrospective malaria data was collected and analyzed to
determine trends of malaria prevalence in Gela Matebia Health Center, Ebinat District,
Northwest Ethiopia. Malaria is endemic in the area according to retrospective malaria data from
health facility. Over the past five-year, the overall prevalence of malaria was 34.4% (3201/9313).
From the total malaria prevalence, P. falciparum accounted 21.6% (n=2010), whereas P. vivax
and mixed infection accounted 11.5% (n=1074) and 1.3% (n=117), respectively. A prospective,
cross-sectional study was conducted from April to May, 2023. The blood samples were taken
from randomly selected 422 febrile patients from Gela Matebia Health Center. Both thick and
thin blood smears were stained with 3% Giemsa solution and processed according to the WHO
guidelines. Relevant information about socio-demographic and associated risk factors of malaria
was collected using structured questionnaire. Chi-square and logistic regression analysis were
used to assess the possible association between dependent and independent variables. From a
total of 422 study participants, 189 (44.8%) were positive for malaria. Out of this, the prevalence
of P.falciparum, P.vivax and Mixed was 25.8% (109), 17.1% (72) and 1.9% (8), respectively.
Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that family monthly income (p=0.002), house
wall type (p=0.036), cattle in the house (p=0.001), knowledge on malaria control (p=0.011),
clear mosquito breeding site (p=0.001), ITN using status (p=0.005) and chemical spray
(p=0.001) were significant explanatory risk factors for occurrence of malaria among study
participants in the study area. This high prevalence of malaria indicates that malaria remains a
serious public health problem in the study area. Therefore, all concerned bodies should design
practical action plans for effective prevention and control of malaria in the study area.