Retrospective study of malaria cases attending at tertiary care level Hospital in Rajkot city, Gujarat

Background: Malaria is one of the important public health problems in India by considering its prevalence, virulence and drug resistance. Aim: This study was undertaken to analyze and introspect the presentation of this disease in a tertiary referral centre. Methodology: This record-based descriptive retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care level hospital -P.D.U. Government Hospital, Rajkot city, Gujarat, India from January 2011 to December 2013. The data were collected from the medical records department of the hospital and analyzed by using Microsoft excel. All the patients with fever as chief complain who had attended OPD of Medicine and patients admitted in ward, their blood samples were collected from Central laboratory & Pathology Department of hospital. Results: Out of a total of 187690 cases studied, 3957(2.10%) cases were positive for malaria. 2430(61.41%) cases were positive for Plasmodium vivax and 1526(38.56%) were positive for Plasmodium falciparum. The overall slide positivity rate (SPR), slide falciparum rate (SFR) and P.falciparum (PF) were 2.10%, 0.81 % and 38.57% respectively. Further analysis with month wise distribution of cases shows that malaria cases are more or less high in month of August, September and October. Conclusions: There is high prevalence of P. vivax as compare to P. falciparum infections. The maximum number of cases was reported in month of August to October which concludes that malaria has its peak incidence during rainy season. As year progresses there is gradual decrease in number of positive malarial cases concludes that awareness, availability of treatment, education &preventive measurements all of this help to decrease prevalence of malaria in Rajkot city.