Prevalence of Plasmodium Falciparum Among Pregnant Women in Yaqshid District of Somalia

Abstract

Abstract: Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum predominates in Africa where the mortality attributed to its approaches 1 million annually, and accounts for 90% of the global malaria burden. The main purpose was to explore the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum among pregnant women in Yaqshid district, Mogadishu-Somalia. In this cross-sectional study, data was collected using semi- structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS. More than one-fifth (26.7%) of the respondents currently has Plasmodium falciparum and about 82% of them suffered Plasmodium falciparum during their pregnancy. Slightly above three-fourths of the respondents were housewife (77.3%), followed by less than one-tenth health staff (8.7%) and nearly half of the respondents had Bachelor degree (46.7%). The use of routine, nationwide surveillance of infection prevalence is the key to monitoring the changing epidemiology of malaria in all countries scaling up coverage of malaria preventative strategies. Somalia has a range of political and economic barriers that might limit the success of a strategic, epidemiologically driven malaria control programmer. It has been possible to demonstrate, however, that the foci of greatest disease risk are predominantly concentrated in one area in the south and that infection risks are very low in the northern reaches of the country.