Malaria in pregnancy is a major contributor to adverse maternal and
perinatal outcome. In hyper endemic areas like ours, it is a common
cause of anaemia in pregnancy in both immune and non-immune individuals
and is aggravated by poor socioeconomic circumstances. The aim of this
study is to assess the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria parasitaemia
among pregnant women in a rural setting. 272 pregnant women, aged
between 18 and 40 years in some remote rural areas of Ebonyi State,
Nigeria were recruited between January 2007 and March 2008.Their blood
samples were collected and examined for malaria parasite, haemoglobin
and packed cell volume using standard methods. Our results showed 59.9%
prevalence of parasitaemia with the highest prevalence occurring in the
first trimester (84.1%).Among the positive cases, mild parasitaemia was
recorded in 47.2% moderate parasitaemia in 37.4% while severe
parasitaemia was recorded in 15.3% of cases. These differences were
statistically significant (P<0.016). Furthermore the distribution of
malaria densities in different gravidity groups showed an inverse
relationship, 45.4% in primigravidae, (31.9%) in secundigravidae and
(10.4%) among people with more than five pregnancies. These findings
were statistically significant (P< 0.0001). The prevalence of
anaemia in pregnancy in this study was 62.4%. Apart from the use of
nets, drugs and vector control, the prevention of malaria in pregnancy
in very poor socioeconomic settings should make provision for
nutritional support