Abstract:
Background. Malaria remains one of the world’s major public health issues, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In
Ethiopia, cases have declined over the last decade, and attempts to eradicate the illness are underway. e purpose of this study was
to determine trends in malaria prevalence in selected areas of the Ka a zone during the last ve years (Decha and Gimbo districts).
Methods. All malaria cases registered from 2017 to 2021 were reviewed to assess the trends of malaria prevalence. A checklist was
used to collect the secondary data from registers and entered it into an Excel spreadsheet, which was then exported to the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 for analysis. e malaria incidence rate was calculated with the total number of
person-years as the denominator and the number of new cases as the numerator. Seasons, years, gender, age, and malaria parasite
species were all used to show trends in malaria transmission in the areas. Tables and gures were used to present the data. Results.
Out of 20,045 individuals screened for malaria, 13.6% (2,732/20,045) of them were recorded to have Plasmodium species tested
using microscopy and rapid diagnostic test (RDT). Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, and mixed infections (Plasmodium
falciparum + Plasmodium vivax) accounted for 1200 (5.9%), 1114 (5.56%), and 418 (2.09%) of the con rmed malaria
cases, respectively. Overall, malaria incidence decreased with an interannual variation, from 4.08 cases per 1000 person-years in
2017 to 3.62 cases per 1000 person-years in 2018, then increased to 4.94 cases per 1000 person-years in 2021. Conclusion. e
malaria trend over the last ve years has revealed a nonconsistent pattern of cases in di erent years. e number of malaria cases
has shown an increase over the period of 2017 to 2021. Interannual and intra-annual variations have been observed in the
transmission of the disease.
