Abstract:
Background: Asymptomatic malaria occurs during pregnancy that causes intrauterine growth
retardation resulting in increasing the risk of stillbirths, abortion, premature delivery, and low
birth weight. It also hinders the elimination of malaria as infected hosts that serve as silent
reservoirs for transmission of Plasmodium species in community because peoples felt uncertain
to take treatment due to the lack of symptoms and knowledge of asymptomatic malaria may not
a strong re-enforcement for treatment adherence.
Objectives: The study was aimed at to assess the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria and its
associated factors among pregnant women in Nono district.
Method: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from October–December
2021 among 260 pregnant women who were randomly selected from the residents of the selected
kebeles of Nono district. The blood samples for the study were collected by trained laboratory
personnel using finger prick disposable sterilized lancet. Light microscopy was used to assess
the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria in the study area. Also, semi-structured questionnaires
were used to collect the associated factors data. The data were entered using Epi Data version
3.1 and exported to SPSS version 23 for cleaning and further analysis by using descriptive
statistics. The association between dependent and independent variables was explored using
Fisher‘s exact test. The statistical significance was declared at P<0.05.
Results: A total of 260 study participants were used for this study. This study result indicated
that the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria was 1.9% with the relative proportion of
plasmodium falciparum of 60%. The study result also indicated that 78% of the participants had
an insecticidal treated net (ITNs) in their home. Among the participants having ITNs, the
majority of the (81.8%) were utilizing their ITNs to protect the malaria in the study area. The
type of water sources around their home (P-value=0.028, chi coefficient=0.155) was found to be
the significant factor associated with asymptomatic malaria in the study area.
Conclusions: The asymptomatic malaria was 1.9% prevalent in Nono district. The type of
water sources was the significant factor associated with asymptomatic malaria in the district.
Thus, West shoa Zonal health Office and Nono district health office should collaboratively
work to eliminate malaria by larval source management strategy and providing timely malaria
related health education for the community in the area of mosquito breeding sites.
