Clinical and demographic characteristics of malaria infections in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Introduction: Syndromic surveillance strategy is used to identify and contain malaria cases and outbreaks. Plasmodium species have established endemicity in the Dominican Republic, where the country aims to eradicate the disease. Aim: The aim of our study is to provide clinical and demographic characteristics of Malaria cases in the Dominican Republic over the years 2012-2017. Methods: Data of cases of Malaria were extracted from the Ministry of Health Weekly Reports (digepi.com.do). Demographic and clinical information were supplied by the Ministry of Health to supplement the Weekly Reports data. Results: 1204 reports cases of Malaria infections were made during the years 2012-2017. 60.4% (n= 727) of the cases occurred among male patients while 39.6% (n= 477) among females. Mean age of infection was 28.5 years old (29.8 – 27.3, 95% CI) among males and 28.5 years old (30 – 26.9, 95% CI). Pregnant females accounted for 8.2% (n=39) of the infections. 2% (n= 24) of the cases occurred in 2012, 19.9% (n=240) in 2013, 13.3% (n=160) in 2014, 21.2% (n=255) in 2015, 29.6% (n=356) in 2016 and 14% (n=169) in 2017. Autochthonous infections accounted for 95.2% (n=1146) of cases while the neighbor country of Haiti was responsible for the most imported cases (n=45). Fever was the most reported symptom, reported in 96.7% (n=1164) of cases, followed by headaches (65.1%, n= 784). 77.1% (n=931) of cases required hospitalizations while death occurred in 0.6% (n=7) of the reported infections. Conclusion: Malaria represents one of the anthropod-bourne diseases circulating in the Dominican Republic. Males account for almost double of the cases when compared to females’ patients, while both have similar mean age of infections. High percentage of hospitalizations may point to underreporting of cases in ambulatory patients. Autochthonous transmission plays an important role in maintaining endemicity, further studies have to be conducted to explain patterns of this cases. This is the first study done in the Dominican Republic describing demographic and clinical characteristics of Malaria infections.