Frequency of Malaria in Patients Presenting with Anemia in Pregnancy at a Tertiary-Care Hospital in Pakistan

Abstract

Malaria in pregnant women presenting with anemia is frequently observed as compared to the non-pregnant women due to lower immunity, chances of recurrence, or other complications of gestation. The aim of the current research was to determine the accurate frequency of malaria in patients presenting with anemia during pregnancy.It was a cross-sectional cohort study conducted in thedepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Civil Hospital Karachi, Pakistan, from October 12, 2018, to April 11, 2019. For this purpose,a total of 161 pregnant women (18 to 35 years) with singleton pregnancies diagnosed with anemia were included. Other known causes of anemia like thalassemia trait, vitamin B12 and folate deficiency, worm infestation, thalassemia, aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia, chronic renal and heart disease were excluded. In all patients, the blood sample was collected from the antecubital vein under aseptic precaution for determining malarial parasite (MP) by ICT (intracytoplasmic trophozoite). The outcome variable i.e. MP-ICT was noted. The majority of patients (95; 59.01%) were between 26 to 35 years of age, while the mean gestational age was 32.70±3.23 weeks with the mean parity of 4.67 ± 1.43. The frequency of malaria in patients presenting with anemia in pregnancy was observedina totalof 58 (36.02%) women. So,the study concluded that the patientspresenting with anemia in pregnancy are at higher risk to develop malaria than non-anemic pregnant women.