Abstract:
Objective: To document the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia among the HIV infected
febrile children in a malaria endemic area.
Design: A cross-sectional study.
Setting: An ambulatory paediatric HIV clinic in Western Kenya, between November
2011 and December 2012.
Subjects: A total of 245 febrile HIV infected children aged less than 14 years attending
the HIV clinic in the Webuye level IV hospital were included in the study. A systematic
sampling method was used.
Main outcomes: A blood sample was taken for malaria parasite testing. Presence
or absence of malaria parasites was documented. Clinical and socio-demographic
characteristics of the participants were also recorded.
Results: A total of 245 participants were recruited mean age being 5.53 years. Malaria
prevalence was 81.9%. Most participants (97%) were on cotrimoxazole prophylaxis.
Some of the factors found to be positively associated with malaria parasitaemia were;
male sex, care taker category (parent), WHO stage 3 and 4 of HIV disease, and a high
absolute CD4 count. However, only the caretaker association was statistically significant.
Conclusion: The frequency of malaria parasitaemia among febrile HIV infected
children is still high regardless of the high cotrimoxazole prophylaxis uptake. It is
also noted that there is a shift in the age group of fever among children toward the
older age group. This implies that policies may need to be relooked at to include the
older age group in the aggressive malaria prevention measures to avoid losing on the
already made gains.
