Comparative Study of Malaria Prevalence among

Abstract

Malaria is a major disease in Africa and leads to various public health problems. A study was carried out at the Aviation Medical Clinic Laboratory, Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, in 2014. The work aimed to determine the prevalence of malaria among patients attending the laboratory. Blood samples were therefore collected from 51 patients and subjected to both blood smear microscopy and a rapid immunochromatographic diagnostic test (SD BIOLINE Malaria Ag) for detection of, respectively, malaria parasites and antigens. At the end of the study, 22% of the patients were detected positive by the microscopic examinationwhile 9.8%were tested positivewhen using SDBIOLINEMalariaAg.Theoutcomes of the study showa high prevalence of malaria at the airport. This represents a serious risk factor leading to a high likelihood of spread and occurrence ofmalaria in other countries including Western countries whereby the disease is nonendemic. It also pointed out that the blood smear microscopy seems to be better than RapidDiagnosis Test (RDT) for malaria diagnosis.