PREVALENCE OF MALARIA IN DISTRICT BANNU, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KP), PAKISTAN

Abstract

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, which are spread to people through the bite of infected female anopheles’ mosquitoes. Malaria in Pakistan remains the fourt largest cause of death among communicable disease. The current study was conducted during March to August 2025 in Women and Children Teaching Hospital (WCTH) in district Bannu for the assessment of current status of malaria age-wise, gender-wise and based on pregnancy (pregnant vs. non-pregnant females).  In the present study which is conducted in District Bannu total 222165 Malaria patients were tested from 2021-2024. Among these 8355 (3.76%) were positive, 8296 (99.29%) were infected by P.vivax while 58 (0.69%) were suffered from P.falciparum, only 1 (0.02%) Malaria patient was infected by both P. vivax and P. falciparum. Out of the positive patients 4699 (56.24%) were males while 3656 (43.75%) were females, and 5457 (65.31%) patients have age group >15 years, 1996 (23.90%) pateints have age group 4-14 years, while 902 (10.80%) pateints have age of 0-4 years. Out of the positive females 77 (2.10%) were pregnant females while 3579 (97.90%) were non-pregnant. The findings revealed that P. vivax was more prevalent compared to P. falciparum across most groups. Among age categories, elderly individuals (having age >15 years) were more commonly affected, followed by adults (having age 4-14 years) while children (having age 0-4 years) showed lower infection rates. In terms of gender, males were more affected then females. Additionally, non-pregnant females had a higher infection rate than pregnant females. Better management and awareness protect the people District Bannu from mosquito bites and ultimately reduce the risk of malaria infection in the area.