Study on congenitally acquired Plasmodium Falciparum infection in neonates in Muheza district, Tanzania
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Date
2006
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
The study aimed to determine if infants diagnosed with malaria parasites in the age
below three months acquire the infection congenitally from their mothers through the
placenta. Placenta blood, cord blood samples and blood from infants born of mothers
diagnosed with placental malaria by blood smear and presented clinical malaria
below three months of age were examined by PCR amplification, PCR-RFLP and
sequenced. Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum by PCR in the placenta and cord
were 9.2% and 65%, respectively and 18 (19.1%) of infants born from mothers
diagnosed with placental malaria developed clinical malaria below three months of
age. Placental blood and cord blood sample, and placental blood and blood samples
of infants below three months that shared the same band size by PCR and fragments
size by PCR-RFLP were considered to be genetically related. Though sequencing
results confirm differently that, sharing band size and fragments size between
samples does not confirm that the parasites are genetically related. Six pairs (40%)
out of 14 pairs of placental blood and cord blood samples that shared band size and
fragments size, after sequencing were genetically unrelated while eight pairs (60%)
were genetically related which is an indication of transplacental transmission of
malaria parasites to the cord. One pair (14.3%) of sequenced placental blood samples
and blood samples of infants below three months were genetically related. This
showed that the malaria parasite that crossed from the placenta to the infants through
the cord caused congenital malaria. Over three-fourths (79.8%) of newborn infants
delivered from mothers with placental malaria were below normal gestation age and
14.9% of newborn infants had low birth weights. Some 42.5% of primigravidae were
found to be parasitized with P.falciparum in the placental. A higher proportional of
infants from primigravid were frequently infected with malaria while infants from
multigravid observed to acquire malaria infection early in life. Placental malaria,
which leads to cord malaria, observed to significantly decrease (P <0.001) as gravid
increases.
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Thesis
Keywords
Plasmodium Falciparum, Neonates, Muheza district, Tanzania