Prevalence of Malaria Parasite among Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Students of Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of malaria parasites infection among asymptomatic and symptomatic students of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. A total of 300 students (150 each for the two categories of students), 155(51.67%) males and 145(48.33%) females; age range: <20-30 years were recruited for the study after informed consent. Both thick and thin films were made and stained using parasitological standard procedures after collection of blood samples from the students. Analysis of the result showed that 241(80.33%) of the subjects had malaria parasites, 80(53.3%) and 141(94.0%) prevalence for both categories respectively. Highest prevalence (59.0%) and (94.4%) was recorded among the males than the females (46.3%) and (93.6%) respectively for asymptomatic and symptomatic students. Age distribution showed the highest prevalence among subjects of age range <20 years in the two categories (68.4% and 100%) while the least prevalence of 42.9%, 76.9% and 48.3% were recorded among subjects of age range 25-27. According to Body index mass, the result showed that 55.0% of the infection occurred among underweight and 96.3% for normal weight for asymptomatic and symptomatic subjects with a significant difference (p=0.01). On the use of Insecticide Treated Net for both categories of students, those using nets had the higher prevalence of malaria infection 61.9% and 94.4% respectively. Asymptomatic malaria was a risk factor among the students therefore measures to reduce the prevalence are advocated