Related Articles Moderate-to-Severe Anaemia due to Afebrile Plasmodium falciparum Infection in Children aged 6-23 Months from the Rural District of Kongoussi, Burkina Faso. J Trop Pediatr. 2008 Jul 3; Authors: Ouédraogo HZ, Zeba A, Dramaix-Wilmet M, Donnen P A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the association of haemoglobin concentration and moderate-to-severe anaemia with afebrile Plasmodium falciparum (PF) infection in 456 rural children aged 6-23 months. Capillary blood was obtained for haemoglobin concentration measurement by HemoCue(R) and malaria detection by blood smear microscopy. Anaemia was noted in 444 (97.4%) children with 194 (42.5%) being moderate-to-severe anaemia. PF infection was noted in 240 (52.6%) children with 117 (25.6%) being afebrile and 123 (27.0%) being febrile. Children with afebrile and those with febrile PF infection were more likely to have moderate-to-severe anaemia than children who were PF-free, with odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 1.86 (1.07-3.23), p = 0.028 and 2.40 (1.29-4.48), p < 0.001, respectively. These results underline the high burden of both anaemia and PF infection in this population. Strategies aiming at controlling malarial anaemia and based on malaria case-treatment should consider both febrile and afebrile PF infection to allow for a better impact. PMID: 18599531 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] ...
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