Red Blood Cell Indices of Children with Varying Degrees of Malaria Parasitemia in Jos, Plateau State-Nigeria

Aim: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of haematological alterations and their diagnostic utility in malaria-infected children in Jos, Nigeria's Plateau state.

Study Design: This study is a cross-sectional study design to investigate the Red Blood Cell Indices of Children with Varying Degrees of Malaria Parasitemia in Jos, Plateau State-Nigeria.

Place and Duration of the Study: The study was conducted in Jos University Teaching Hospital. Data collection covered a specific duration between August, 2022 to January, 2023.

Methods: From August 2022 to January 2023, the study was conducted as a cross-sectional study at Jos University Teaching Hospital in Plateau State. A total of 384 MP positive cases were collected and used in the study, which included children who met the inclusion criteria and were diagnosed throughout the study period. All patients had full blood counts taken as well as different red blood cell indices.

Results: The Comparison between children with mild malaria parasitemia to those with low malaria parasitemia, there was a significant rise in the red blood cell count (P<.05). Children with low, moderate, and high parasitemia levels of malaria do not significantly differ in red blood cell count (P>.05). The results of this study also revealed that there is no difference between children with low, mild, moderate, and high parasitemia levels in terms of their hematocrit (P>.05). Furthermore, when compared to children with mild malaria parasitemia, the haemoglobin level in the high parasitemia group of kids was considerably lower (P<.05). The children with low, mild, moderate, and high malaria parasitemia did not exhibit any discernible change in mean corpuscular volume according to the study's findings (P>.05). Contrarily, the mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration was significantly higher (P<.05) in the children with high malaria parasitemia than in the children with mild malaria parasitemia, and it was significantly higher (P<.05) in the children with moderate malaria parasitemia than in the children with mild malaria parasitemia. Comparing the RDW-CV in moderate malaria parasitemia to mild malaria parasitemia, there was a substantial reduction (P<.05) in both cases.

Conclusion: This study's main finding is that children with various densities of malarial parasites display significant disparities in the indices of red blood cells during the infection.