MALARIA PREVALENCE AND OUTCOME IN THE INPATIENTS OF THE PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE SPECIALISTS HOSPITAL (SSH), MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA

Of 4651 admissions between February 1995 and February 1996, 1043 had a presumed diagnosis of malaria. Six hundred and twenty-seven cases wer e confirmed by thick blood film examinations. The highest prevalence w as in October (124/480 admissions) and the lowest in March (12/303), S ixty-five children died while 562 survived, 12 with defects. The first treatment in 422 children was chloroquine, in 143 quinine, in 59 halo fantrin, and in three pyrimethamine with sulfadoxine (Fansidar(R)), 23 /422 patients started on chloroquine were switched to halofantrine, tw o to quinine, A higher mortality was associated with coma, convulsions , hepatosplenomegaly, pulmonary congestion, jaundice, haemoglobinuria, bladder paralysis, anuria. Anaemia and fever were more severe and hyp oglycaemia more frequent in children who died than in children who sur vived (packed cell volume 18.5 +/- 7.1 per cent vs. 25.6 +/- 7.6 per c ent, p < 0.001; temperature 39 +/- 1.1 degrees C vs. 38.7 +/- 0.9 degr ees C, p < 0.05; random blood sugar <40 mg/100 ml; 76 vs. 22 per cent, p < 0.01), There was no difference in the median age, pretreatment du ration, and prevalence of diarrhoea and sickle cell disease. The male to female ratio was 1.5:1 in the surviving children vs. 1:1.03 in the dead.