Effect of Antimalarial Drugs on Haematological Indices of Malarial Patients

The possible effects of drug administration on haematological indices in blood of malaria positive individuals were evaluated in this study. A total of 100 individuals (consisting of 87 malaria positive patients and 13 malaria negative individuals used as control) were recruited for this study. The medical history of the patients such as the duration of illness, age, gender status, drug administered and social status were obtained. The degree of parasitaemia in the blood of malaria positive individuals was also determined. The results of this study showed a significant (p 0.05) mean difference in the values of red blood cell, mean cell volume, platelet count, plateletcrit, mean platelet volume in malaria patients compared to the control patients, although, there were non-significant (p>0.05) decreases depending on the degree of parasiatemia, age range, sex and duration of illness of malaria positive individuals. However, the anti-malarial drugs significantly affected the WBC, Hb and PCV levels while the other haematological indices did not vary significantly. It can be concluded that the anti-malarial drugs should be used with caution in the management of malaria infection.