Prevalence Of Plasmodium Species Infection Among Primary School Children And Performance Of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits In Baringo County, Kenya.

Malaria causes the greatest public health burden in sub-Saharan Africa where high mortality mainly occurs in children under five years of age and pregnant women. Majority of Kenyan population are at risk of malaria infection. Traditionally, malaria has been studied mainly in Western and Coastal Kenya while the rift valley especially Baringo County few malaria studies have been conducted indicating seasonal transmission. This has resulted in scanty information on actual malaria prevalence and transmission patterns which may hinder setting up of proper control strategies. Moreover, primary school children seem to be endangered due to minimal protection by insecticide treated nets. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of Plasmodium species infection among primary school children and to evaluate the performance of malaria rapid diagnostic test kits in diagnosis of malaria in Baringo County, Kenya. One thousand six hundred and sixty eight (1668) children from fifteen primary schools located in 4 ecological zones (lowlands, midlands, highlands and riverine) of three sub Counties of Baringo County were recruited into the study. Finger prick blood sampling was done every four months (during the dry season in January/ February, during the long rains in June/July, short rains in November 2015 and during dry season in January/ February 2016). Plasmodium species infection was tested using three rapid diagnostic test kits (CareStart Pf, SD Bioline Ag Pf and SD Bioline Ag P.f/ Pan). Microscopic examination was done on all RDT positive and 10% of negative cases. A total of 268 (16.1%), out of 1668 pupils tested positive for P. falciparum by RDT; 78% had a single episode of infection, 16.8% had 2 episodes, 4.9% had 3 episodes and 0.4% had 4 episodes of infections.