Eight-year malaria trend in Estie District, Ethiopia: implications for malaria elimination

In Ethiopia, malaria is one of the leading health and socioeconomic problems even though significant numbers of malaria cases were reduced in the last two decades. The health facilities’ retrospective studies offer valuable insights into how to carry out evidence-based interventions in particular areas and assess the effectiveness of ongoing malaria control initiatives. However, the trend of malaria prevalence has not been studied so far in the Estie locality; therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the eight-year trend of malaria in the Estie district, Ethiopia. A retrospective study was conducted to determine the occurrence of malaria over the past eight years (2015–2022) from the peripheral blood smear examinations reported in the laboratory logbooks of the Mekane Eyesus hospital and health center, Ethiopia. To show the trends of infection rate patterns in months, years, sexes, age groups, residential settings, and seasons, descriptive statistics were used. Tables and figures were used to display results. Of 49,215 clinically malaria-suspected individuals, only 15.6% (7674) microscopically confirmed malaria cases were reported in the district. The rate of infection was much higher in males (81.9%) and rural communities (71.3%) than females (18.1%) and urban communities (28.7%), respectively ( p < 0.01). The most frequently identified Plasmodium species was Plasmodium falciparum ( p < 0.01). The highest peak of malaria cases was recorded in age groups between 15 and 44 years in the autumn season (September, October, and November), which is considered the peak malaria transmission period in Ethiopia after the heavy rain in July and August. Despite large fluctuations in malaria incidence over the last eight years, malaria has remained a public health problem in the research area. Malaria is particularly likely to reappear between 2021 and 2022, which is extremely concerning. Furthermore, in the study location, P. falciparum is the predominant species, followed by P. vivax in a rural population. As a result, the use of ongoing intervention strategies should be reviewed. Uninterrupted efforts and increased malaria control and prevention activities are critical to considerably lowering the malaria burden in the research area. Unless these issues are addressed, the country’s goal of eradicating malaria would be significantly hampered.