Prevalence of Malaria Cases in Tea Garden Areas of Lakhimpur District, Assam

Objective: After observing the increasing trend in numbers of fever cases from Joyhing and Koilamari tea estate, mass fever surveys were conducted to determine the prevalence of malaria cases in the affected areas. Methods: Finger prick blood samples were collected from 368 patients having complained of fever and headache. Rapid malaria test kit was used for initial detection of malaria parasite. Further microscopic slide examination was also performed for confirmation. Taking microscopic examination as a gold standard method, the efficiency of rapid malaria test kit was determined by using statistical calculation. Results: In rapid malaria test kit, P. falciparum malaria parasite was detected in 87 cases. Beside this, P. vivax infection was observed in 10 cases. Patients had no travel history. Females were more susceptible to malarial infection. Children’s and adults were almost equally vulnerable to malaria infection. Among the positive samples, 88.66% cases were having symptoms of fever and remaining cases were asymptomatic. Taking macroscopic slide examination as a gold standard method, the sensitivity and specificity Conclusion: The disease prevalence was 24.73%. For active detection of malaria incidence, mass fever survey is needed in other tea garden areas where increasing trend of fever cases were observed. of SD malaria one step antigen rapid test was 100% and 97.83% respectively.