ArticleMalaria research and treatment2018
Presumptive Treatment of Malaria in Ghana: Was It Ever Useful? Evidence from the Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana.
Article in Malaria research and treatment, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Malaria control in Northern Ghana: a scoping review.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Adherence to the test, treat and track malaria policy among selected health facilities in Ghana: the clients' perspective.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- What Influences Patients' Adherence to Healthcare Worker Prescription in Primary Healthcare Facilities in Burkina Faso? A Qualitative Account of Barriers and Facilitators.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Article
- Request for Antimalarial Medicines and Their Dispensing Without a Prescription in Community Pharmacies in Rwanda.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2023Article
- Rationalization of the Laboratory Diagnosis for Good Management of Malaria: Lessons from Transitional Methods.Journal of tropical medicine · 2022Article
- Immunological, haematological, and clinical attributes of rural and urban malaria: a case-control study in Ghana.Journal of parasitic diseases : official organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology · 2021Article
- The Use of Screening Algorithm to Defer Blood Donors with Subclinical Malaria.Journal of tropical medicine · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe WHO currently advocates parasitological confirmation of malaria before treatment is commenced. However, many arguments have emerged both for and against this new position. To contribute to the debate, this secondary data analysis was conducted to determine the likelihood of malaria parasitaemia in a child presenting with fever, vomiting, or cough in the Kassena-Nankana District.
methodsThe dataset for this analysis was generated during a study to assess the incidence and risk factors for paediatric rotavirus diarrhoea in the Kassena-Nankana District. Over a two-year period, trained field staff recruited 2086 subjects with episodes of diarrhoea aged 24 months or below into the study. A standard case report form was used to collect data on histories of illness, symptoms, vaccination, and anthropometry. Blood smears were tested for malaria parasites. The data set generated was obtained, cleaned, and analysed using Epi Info version 7.1.1.14 statistical software.
resultsOf the 2086 subjects recruited, 2078 had blood smears done and 54.0% had malaria parasites. Fever and vomiting appeared to be associated with parasitaemia with odds ratios of 1.9 (95% CI: 1.5586-2.2370) and 1.2 (95% CI: 1.0352-1.4697), respectively. Cough however appeared protective with an odds ratio of 0.8 (95% CI: 0.6910-0.9765). The odds of parasitaemia appeared to increase where a child presented with more than one symptom.
conclusionNearly half (46%) of the subjects in this study presented with symptoms but had no malaria. Presumptive treatment of malaria may therefore be useful in situations where diagnostic tests are not readily available, its routine practice should however not be encouraged.
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