Background: Malaria is a protozoan disease transmitted by the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Progression to severe and fatal disease is largely but not entirely confined to Plasmodium falciparum infections. Despite remarkable progress in recent years, malaria remains a leading cause of sickness and death across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria disproportionately impacts the rural poor, typically people who must walk for miles to seek treatment.
Methods: Institution based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Arba Minch General Hospital on February 2019. Data was collected from patient record whom admitted with severe malaria in the past 4 years from Sep. 2015 – September 2018. Data was entered to Epidata 3.1. And then exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was computed to assess statistical association between the outcome variable and independent variables using Odds Ratio; significant of statistical association was tested using 95% confidence interval (CI) and p value (<0.05).
Result: Out of 422 patients with severe malaria intended to be included in the study, 387 cases were actually involved with response rate of 91.7%. The mortality rate associated with severe malaria in the year between 2015-2018 at Arba Minch General Hospital was 5.7%. Co-morbidity, impaired consciousness and acidosis were significantly associated with mortality, at significant level of P <0.05.
Conclusion: co-morbidity, impaired consciousness and Acidosis were found to be poor prognostic indicators for patients with severe malaria, so priority should be given for those patients who came with such manifestations.