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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Parasitol.
Sec. Epidemiology and Ecology
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpara.2025.1535306

Malaria Prevalence and Patients' Knowledge, Attitude and Preventive Practice toward the Diseases in Jawi District, Awi Zone, Northwest Ethiopia

Provisionally accepted
Damtew Bekele Damtew Bekele 1*Mekete Damen Mekete Damen 2Fikru Gashaw Fikru Gashaw 2
  • 1 Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia
  • 2 Kotebe University of Education, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Malaria is the most important parasitic illness causing morbidity and mortality with high prevalence in tropical regions. Objective: This study was aimed at evaluating the seven-year malaria trend and community awareness at Jawi Health Center and primary Hospital in Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: Retrospective and cross-sectional or prospective design were used for the study. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 22 software. The findings was considered as significant at P < 0.05. Results: Among 62,624 blood films between 2015 and 2021 at Jawi Health Center, 40.9% were positive. Plasmodium falciparum accounted for 85.8%. Females had more mixed infection (P. falciparum and P. vivax) (X 2 =8.9, df = 2, P = 0.011) than males. Greater proportion (20.6%) of malaria cases were observed within the age group under five years and the number of malaria cases was at higher level of infection in September, October and June. The overall prevalence of malaria was found to be 25.2% and June had the highest proportion (75.6%). About 335 (80.9%) recognized mosquito bites as the cause and fever (50%) as the clinical symptom of malaria. More than half of the respondents (60.1%) never sleep under mosquito net. Conclusion: Thus, these finding has substantial implications for the trend of malaria prevalence and patients awareness toward the disease which support the existing malaria control efforts. Contribution: The study revealed trend of malaria prevalence, and knowledge on modes of transmission and preventive measures are important preceding factors for the acceptance and use of control tools by the community.

    Keywords: Awareness, Jawi, Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, Prevalence

    Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Bekele, Damen and Gashaw. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Damtew Bekele, Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.