Abstract

Introduction: ?Malaria is a mosquito borne blood
disease with a worldwide distribution
transmitted through blood meals of infected
female anopheles mosquitoes (World Health
Organization (WHO, 2018). Malaria parasites is
usually confirmed and assessed by microscopic
examination of blood films or by malaria Rapid
Diagnostic Tests (mRDT) which may include
Histidine-Rich Protein 2?(HRP2), Plasmodium
lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH), Urine Malaria
Test (UMT). The microscopic detection of
malaria parasite is generally considered as the
gold standard in malaria diagnosis due to good
sensitivity and specificity. The objective of this
study is to assess the performance of malaria
Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Histidine rich protein 2
and urine malaria test) with microscopy for the
detection of malaria parasite among undergraduate students attending Babcock University.
Methodology: ?A cross sectional study design was
used. The study was carried out between October
2018 to February 2019 in Babcock University/
Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Illishan
Remo, Ogun state. A total of two hundred (200)
undergraduate students of Babcock University
were recruited for this study. Rapid diagnostic
tests (HRP-2 and UMT) and microscopy were
used as the main diagnostic tools for this
research along with questionnaire.
Result: ?the study revealed that 100% of the
respondents knew about malaria as a disease.
14% of the study population had been
hospitalized this year of which 64.3% were due to
malaria and its complications. 0.5% of the study
population had malaria less than 1 month , 14.5%
had malaria in less than 3 months ago, 24% had
malaria within 4-6 months ago and 24.5% didn’t
know when they last had malaria. Of the
proportion of study subjects that visited the
hospital (59.5%), microscopy was used in a
greater percentage to diagnose (60.5%), none
were diagnosed using RDTs, with the rest
(39.5%) unsure of the method used for diagnosis.
The HRP-2 tested positive for only one (0.5%)
patient sample collected whilst, UMT tested
negative for all samples (100%). Microscopy, the
gold standard tested negative for all patients
recruited for the research.
Conclusion: The prevalence of malaria parasite
amongst undergraduate student of Babcock
University is very low due to good knowledge
and awareness of malaria parasites and its
prevention. It was also revealed that HRP is a
sensitive rapid diagnostic test while, UMT is
more specific.