Malaria Trends, Burden, Seasonal Variation, and Interventions in Western Tigray, Ethiopia

Despite being preventable and treatable, malaria continues to have a devastating impact on people's health and livelihoods around the world. In Ethiopia, it is one of the three leading causes of hospital admission and mortality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the trend, burden, seasonal variations, and interventional assessment of malaria in Western Tigray, Ethiopia, from 2011 to 2019.

A hospital-based retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out to determine trend, burden, seasonal variations, and interventional assessment of malaria in Kahsay Abera General Hospital, Western Tigray, North Ethiopia, from 2011 to 2019. All recorded microscopically confirmed malaria cases in the Health Management Information System of the hospital were carefully taken and analyzed. Also, malaria intervention activities applied in the area were assessed using a checklist, personal communication with hospital administrators, and observations. All data of malaria cases were entered and analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel and presented in tables and figures.

A total of 36,438 malaria cases with 50 (0.14%) hospital mortality and 2016 (5.5%) hospital admissions were recorded from 2011 to 2019. Plasmodium falciparum, with 22,621 cases (62.1%), was the predominant malaria species identified. The highest hospital malaria death was observed in the age group ≥ 15 years, with 38 cases (0.10%), and the highest hospital deaths occurred during October-December, with 21 cases (0.06%) of the total confirmed malaria cases. Although the fluctuating trend of malaria cases, with no shift in species, was statistically significant (p = 0.001) over the study period, the trend in hospital mortality due to malaria was not statistically significant (p = 0.62).

Despite Ethiopia's notable progress in malaria control, the disease remains a major health problem with fluctuating annual trends.