Abstract:

To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of malaria in Henan Province as basis for the better prevention and control, the information of malaria cases reported in Henan Province during 2016-2018 were collected and analyzed for the infected Plasmodium species and source, distribution of infected cases, diagnosis and treatment using SPSS 17.0. The results showed that total 541 malaria cases were reported in Henan Province during 2016-2018. These laboratory confirmed cases consisted of 405 cases(74.8%) infected with Plasmodium falciparum, 36 (6.7%) with P. vivax, 76 (14.1%) with P. ovale, 16 (2.9%) with P. malariae, 7 (1.3%) with mixed infections, and 1 (0.2%) with P. knowlesi. All cases were imported from Africa and Southeast Asia except for one case domestically imported from Yunnan in 2016. The imported cases came mainly from Angola (90), Nigeria (71), Congo (44), Cameroon (31), Ghana (29), Guinea (28), Côte d′Ivoire (26), The Republic of Congo (25), and Equatorial Guinea (23). The malaria cases were reported in all 18 cities with most in Luoyang (83), Zhengzhou (77), Xinxiang (53), Puyang (40), Anyang (33) and Xuchang (31). Most malaria cases were male (533, 98.5%), and only 8 cases were female (1.5%). The cases covered the age ranged from 18 to 71 years old, most of them were 30-50 years old (350 cases, 64.7%). Regarding the occupation, most of the infected cases were farmers(223 cases, 41.2%), followed by workers(78 cases, 14.4%), household or unemployed(62 cases, 11.5%). The cases were reported all year round with more in May, August and December. The time between disease onset to visiting a doctor varied from 0 day to 154 days with average of 2.6 days. Total 208 (38.4%) cases were diagnosed as malaria within 24 hours after visiting a doctor, 196 (36.2%) within 3 days, 137 (25.3%) over 3 days and 66 cases (12.2%) were diagnosed as malaria over 7 days after a doctor visit. The local hospitals were the preferred medical institutions for patients to seek for medication after onset of the disease (405 cases, 74.9%), followed by the local center for disease control and prevention(126 cases, 23.3%). Total 345(63.8%) cases received confirmed diagnosis of malaria at the first doctor visit. The medical institutions to get confirmed diagnosis of malaria were mainly provincial (187 cases, 34.6%) and prefecture-level medical institutions (178 cases, 32.9%).

Key words: Malaria, Epidemic analysis, Henan Province