Al-Mekhlafi, Hesham M. and Madkhali, Aymen M. and Ghailan, Khalid Y. and Abdulhaq, Ahmed A. and Ghzwani, Ahmad Hassn and Zain, Khalid Ammash and Atroosh, Wahib Mohammed Mohsin and Alshabi, Alkhansa and Khadashi, Hussein A. and Darraj, Majid A. and Eisa, Zaki M. (2021) Residual malaria in Jazan region, southwestern Saudi Arabia: The situation, challenges and climatic drivers of autochthonous malaria. Malaria Journal, 20 (1). ISSN 1475-2875, DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03846-4.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Background Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only two countries in the Arabian Peninsula that are yet to achieve malaria elimination. Over the past two decades, the malaria control programme in Saudi Arabia has successfully reduced the annual number of malaria cases, with the lowest incidence rate across the country reported in 2014. This study aims to investigate the distribution of residual malaria in Jazan region and to identify potential climatic drivers of autochthonous malaria cases in the region. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out from 1 April 2018 to 31 January 2019 in Jazan region, southwestern Saudi Arabia, which targeted febrile individuals attending hospitals and primary healthcare centres. Participants' demographic data were collected, including age, gender, nationality, and residence. Moreover, association of climatic variables with the monthly autochthonous malaria cases reported during the period of 2010-2017 was retrospectively analysed. Results A total of 1124 febrile subjects were found to be positive for malaria during the study period. Among them, 94.3 and 5.7% were infected with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, respectively. In general, subjects aged 18-30 years and those aged over 50 years had the highest (42.7%) and lowest (5.9%) percentages of malaria cases. Similarly, the percentage of malaria-positive cases was higher among males than females (86.2 vs 13.8%), among non-Saudi compared to Saudi subjects (70.6 vs 29.4%), and among patients residing in rural rather than in urban areas (89.8 vs 10.2%). A total of 407 autochthonous malaria cases were reported in Jazan region between 2010 and 2017. Results of zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis showed that monthly average temperature and relative humidity were the significant climatic determinants of autochthonous malaria in the region. Conclusion Malaria remains a public health problem in most governorates of Jazan region. The identification and monitoring of malaria transmission hotspots and predictors would enable control efforts to be intensified and focused on specific areas and therefore expedite the elimination of residual malaria from the whole region.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | Jazan University (JUP8/000250) |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Malaria; Climatic factors; Elimination; Infectious diseases; Jazan; Saudi Arabia |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Medicine > Parasitology Deparment |
| Depositing User: | Ms Zaharah Ramly |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Sep 2022 08:19 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Sep 2022 08:19 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/34415 |
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