Facteurs associés à la prévalence du paludisme dans la ville de Yaoundé

Abstract

Malaria is a parasitosis caused by the presence in the blood of haematozoa of the genus Plasmodium (Laveran, 1880), 5 of which exist in human pathology namely P. falciparum (Welch, 1897), P. vivax (Grassi and Feletti, 1890), P. malariae (Laveran, 1881), P. ovale (Stephen, 1922) and P. knowlesi (Sinton and Mulligan, 1933), whose vectors are mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles (Meigen, 1818). In Cameroon, malaria remains the major endemic disease and the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. In 2020, the appearance of COVID-19 made it more difficult to respond to malaria worldwide, and thus slowed down the momentum of many countries, including Cameroon, which were planning to eradicate this parasitosis by 2035 (WHO, 2021d). To better coordinate the response to malaria, it is important to know the current proportion of the population suffering from this disease. The general objective of this study was therefore to determine the factors associated with the prevalence of malaria in the city of Yaoundé. A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out from 1 April to 1 June 2021 at the Centre Médical le Jourdain on blood samples from 305 patients who were prescribed malaria screening tests. The rapid diagnostic test, the thick drop and the blood smear were used to determine the absence or presence of Plasmodium in each blood sample. After completing a questionnaire based on socio- demographic factors, use of preventive measures and malaria-related co-morbidities, these patients had a blood sample taken. The results show that the malaria infestation rate calculated by thick drop examination was 33.1%. This value was significantly associated with place of residence (p = 0.002) and failure to use an insecticide-treated mosquito net (p = 0.03). Subjects in the 11-20 age group were the most affected (50.0%). No significant relationship was observed between this infestation rate and age (p = 0.05), religion (p = 0.19), level of education (p = 0.34), use of chemoprophylaxis (p = 0.07) or co-morbidities such as diabetes (p = 0.08) and arterial hypertension (p = 0.05). These data could be used for decision-making in malaria control programmes.