An Exploratory Case study of the effect of Ecology on Malaria Risk Factors in Northern Pakistan.

Abstract Background: Ecology of an area can greatly affects the population of the vector mosquito species by providing conditions for their breeding, thus affecting the transmission of malaria in an area. Areas having similar climate, but dissimilar ecological conditions may alter the factors of malaria transmission, thus resulting in different control strategies for disease management. Current study implies a cross-sectional approach to investigate different malaria risk factors in two ecologically distinct districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Methods: Data was collected by using closed-ended questionnaire from 2854 and 1944 randomly selected individuals of District Charsadda and Swabi respectively from December to August. A univariate logistic regression analysis was used to measure the association between history of malaria infection and different possible risk factors.Results: 37.6% of the respondents in Charsadda and 46.5% in Swabi were having history of malaria infection. Plasmodium vivax was found to be the dominant species causing infection in the local population. In district Swabi, factors like windows mesh, drinking water source, irrigated fields, sleeping habits, gender and marital status was found significant (P<0.05) in the transmission of the infection. In district Charsadda, parameters like windows mesh, house made, animals in home, irrigated fields, use of residual sprays, use of repellents, use of bed nets, outdoor night roaming, family history, previous infection and sleeping habits showed significant (P<0.05) relation to malaria infection. Conclusions: This study provides some basic guidelines by identifying the potential risk factors in districts having diverse ecology to design a comprehensive and effective control strategy to reduce malaria disease burden.