Parasitological profile of the surveyed population for malaria in an endemic area in Faiyoum Governorate, Egypt

Egypt represents the only focus in the Mediterranean region where Plasmodium falciparum transmission still occurs. A longitudinal parasitological study has been implemented (September 1995 to December 1996) in Faiyoum, Egypt. A total of 9065 blood slides for malaria parasites were taken from all people in the study area as mass blood examination (MBE); those attending the malaria unit as passive case detection (PCD) as well as from neighborhood of the detected cases (NOD). They were stained by Giemsa stain and examined under standard conditions for positivity, parasite species and parasite density. Our results show that MBE detected 61.5% of malaria cases while 23.1% and 15.4% of the confirmed cases were detected through PCD and NOD respectively. The overall parasite rate was 5.7/1000 examined population. P. falciparum was the most predominant species (96.1%), followed by P. vivax (3.9%). The epidemiological factors causing the persistence of malaria transmission in the study area are discussed.