The Prevalence of Malaria Parasitaemia and Predisposition of ABO Blood Groups to Plasmodium falciparum Malaria among Blood Donors at a Ghanaian Hospital

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that Plasmodium falciparum malaria is influenced by ABO blood group but the extent of association between the two is yet to be well defined. This study was sought to determine if certain individuals are predisposed to P. falcipa-rum malaria parasite infection by virtue of their ABO blood group, and the malaria parasitaemia prevalence rate among presumably healthy donors. A total of 437 blood samples were examined following best practices. Thick and thin blood films were made from each sample and ABO blood groups determined by a standard tube agglutination technique. Of the 437 samples examined, 13% had malaria parasite in their blood, all of which was identified as P. falcipurum. Most of the donors, 70.5% (308) were females, while 29.5% (129) were males. Of the 129 male donors, 19.4% had malaria parasites in their blood, while 10.4% of the 308 females had malaria parasites. The infection per-centage was significantly higher in the males compared to the females. The respective infective rates were 14.3, 11.1, 13.9 and 0.00% for the blood groups A, B, O and AB. The difference in infection percentage between the various blood groups was, however, not statistically significant. The malaria prevalence rate of 13.0% among the donors in this study is an indication of asymptomatic parasitaemia among blood donors and thus poses a great risk to blood recipients.