Malaria has been reported to cause a huge burden in Africa, crippling the economic development in the continent. There are also contradictory reports on the influence of the ABO blood group on the severity of the infection. This study sought to find out the prevalence of malaria in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria, and if malaria parasites have any preference for a particular blood group in infection. The survey design was employed in which the purposive sampling technique was used to select 240 subjects from people who reported in the Sacred Heart Hospital, Obudu with complaints of ailments and were referred to the laboratory for malaria parasite test. The laboratory unit assisted in the collection of data on whether malaria was positive or not, identifying the parasite to species level, as well as determining the ABO blood group of the patient. The data obtained were entered accordingly in a template developed by the researchers and analysed using percentages and chi-square. Results obtained indicated that 34 % of the people who visited the hospital were positive for malaria, which had no significant relationship with ABO blood group type, and no Plasmodium species significantly prefers any ABO blood group type. It is recommended that whatever efforts put in place to “rollback malaria” should be sustained and intensified to further reduce the incidence. The efforts should also be applied in the same way to individuals of all ABO blood groups. More work should also be carried out on the severity of malaria infection and ABO blood group
Citation: Aniashi, S. O., Okaba, L. A., Anake, E. U., and Akomaye, M. U (2022) The Influence of Abo Blood Group On Malaria Parasites Infection in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, International Journal of Ebola, AIDS, HIV and Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Vol.7, No.1, pp.51-57
Keywords: ABO blood group, Malaria, Plasmodium, Prevalence, parasite
