National Journal of Community Medicine (Jun 2012)
A Retrospective Study of Characteristics of Malaria Cases Attending OPD Of a Tertiary Care Level Hospital in Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh
Abstract
Background: The mobility for employment in this tribal dominated region i.e. Bilaspur and other neighbouring and bordering Districts results constant admixture of different subgroups of the population which is a leading factor for spread of malaria in all possible directions. The present study was carried out to find out the proportion of fever patients,samples positive for malaria, types of parasites involved and the seasonal variation of malaria cases. Methodology: This record-based descriptive retrospective study was conducted from January to December 2009. All the patients with fever as chief complain who had attended OPD of Medicine, their blood samples were collected from Central laboratory & Pathology Department of a tertiary care level hospital in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh state. The cases were identified from computer recordsof the hospital during one year. Individual case note was retrieved and data abstracted in a specific format which was developed for the study. The data were analyzed in the computer software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0. Results: Out of a total of 4063 blood reports studied 1005 (24.74%) were positive for malaria. The overall slide positivity rate (SPR) and slide falciparum rate (SFR) were 24.74% and 71.5 % respectively and Positive falciparum (Pf) constituted 18.1% of the malaria cases. These observations are very alarming and call for immediate attention for controlling the disease in these communities to stop all the transmissions of the parasites of the diseases in the different subgroups of the populations of the region.
