The Prevalence of Malaria among Patients Visiting Mechara Health Center, West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia

Malaria is one of the major public health problems in many tropical and subtropical developing countries such as Ethiopia. Consequently, malaria epidemics are serious public health emergencies. ITNs (Insecticide Treated bed Nets) are the most powerful malaria control tool. The utilization of ITNs is still unacceptably low among people in village. Thus, the objectives of the present study were to determine the current prevalence of malaria, to identify the predominant Plasmodium species ,assess the extent of utilization of ITN and determine the malaria trends among people in Mechara town .Community based a cross sectional survey study was conducted. A systematic random sampling method was used to select 403 study participants for questionnaire and parasitological blood examination. The study was conducted from January to April 2019 in Mechara Health Center, Mechara town. Clinical records of malaria were used to analyses the trends of malaria over the past five years (2014-2018). Diagnosis of malaria infection was done using microscopic examination of thick and thin Giemsa stained blood smears for the presence of malaria parasite and plasmodium species identification. Additionally, structured and pretested questionnaires were used to assess the socio demographic characteristics, of the respondents’, their awareness about ITNs utilization and malaria in the study area. The results showed that 75.7% of the study participants had ITNs; the knowledge about utilization of ITN was not high, where 51.6% of the study participants scored greater than 50% of the assessment questions; and the study participants knowledge about sign and symptoms of malaria were relatively higher. Microscopic examinations of blood samples showed that, the prevalence of malaria parasite was 10(2.5%) in study area and P. vivax and P. falciparum were the dominant malaria parasites accounting for 1.74 % and 0.75% respectively, in the study population. The prevalence of malaria is more in males than in females attributed to more engagement of males in outdoor activities at night. The researcher recommends to focus on intervening misconceptions about malaria causes, modes of transmission and clinical manifestation through healthy extension workers and through community involvement practice as a main strategy