CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the study
Malaria is a potentially deadly disease characterized by cyclical bouts of fever with muscle stiffness, shaking and sweating (WHO, 2000). Macleod (1998) also stated that malaria is a parasitic infection transmitted to humans through the bites of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The name “malaria” is derived from the Italian words Mal (bad) and aria (air). It arose originally because the citizens of Rome thought that the disease was contracted by breathing the bad air of the Pontine Marshes (Garnham, 1966).  It is a vector borne infectious disease caused by a eukaryotic protista of the genus Plasmodium (Akinleye, 2009). Hornby (2007) defined malaria infection as an infectious disease due to the presence of parasitic Protozoa of the genus Plasmodium (P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale or P. vivax) within the red blood cells. The disease is confined to tropical and subtropical areas. Of this four common species that cause malaria, the most serious type is P. falciparum malaria; it is life-threatening (Hay et al., 2004).
Malaria is a major health threatening disease, which results in approximately 200 – 300 million clinical cases and 1-3 million deaths each year worldwide (Hay et al., 2004). Malaria transmission is intense and stable in Nigeria with associated economic losses estimated to be about 132 billion Naira (Snow et al., 2005). In Nigeria and rest of endemic Africa, the bulk of malaria episodes are attributable to P. falciparum with an estimated 28 million cases and 38 000 deaths in 2011, malaria remains a significant public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa (Yadav et al., 2012). In Nigeria, 52.8% of Nigerian population tested positive for falciparum based on microscopy examination (Kochar et al., 2009). According to Kolawole et al. (2014), research in university of Ilorin teaching Hospital (UITH) of patients who have malaria (P. falciparum) infection, 58% of patients were found to be positive with malaria parasite density ranging from 200 parasite/μl to 800 parasite/μl. Malaria is a febrile illness characterized by fever and related symptoms; however it is very important to remember that malaria is not a simple disease of fever, chills and rigors (Kolawole et al., 2014). The number of a typical presentation of malaria has gradually increased during the past few decades (Akinleye, 2009). Malaria can present with non-specific symptoms like headache, fatigue, joint pain, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, myalgia, anaemia followed by fever to severe complications like jaundice, acute renal failure, anaemia, shock, convulsions and coma (Hussian et al., 2012). These symptoms can be acute and chronic depending on the extent of malaria (falciparum) infection and also the complication involve (Kochar et al., 2009). Hence the need for prompt diagnosis and differentiation from other similar symptomatic infection. This study is an attempt to investigate the seropostive and seronegative population among Kwara State University, Malete students.