Fever among Children in Calabar, Nigeria: Malaria, the Predominant Precursory Medical Condition

Abstract

The study was aimed at elucidating the yearly total hospital admittances due to fever among children under 13 years and the associated underlying medical conditions between the years 2000 and 2011. Records of cases of fever among children under 13 years who presented with fever-associated medical condition and attended the General Hospital, Calabar between 2000 and 2011 were collated. The causes of the fever, age and sex of children were collected and collated. A total of 3663 children were admitted into the General Hospital Calabar with fever-associated medical condition between the year 2000 and 2011. Of these, males were 1520 (41.5%) while females were 2143 (58.5%). The sex-related difference was significant (x2-test; p < 0.05). The relative proportion of total annual fever cases ranged from 8.7% to 17.0% between 2000 and 2005, and 2.8% to 5.0% between 2006 and 2011. There are significantly higher number of cases between 2000 and 2005 than between 2006 and 2011 in all the categories of sex and age (t-test; p < 0.05 for all the tests). Malaria was associated with more than a third of the fever cases (39.3%) recorded. This was followed by Respiratory Tract Infection (RTI) which was associated with a fifth of all fever cases recorded (20.1%). In all, 25 medical conditions were found to be associated with fever among the children. The control of malaria and RTI would significantly reduce the burden of fever in Calabar.

Keywords: Fever, malaria, Hospital attendance, Under 13 years children