Malaria in low-birth-weight newborns affects the prognosis. The anthropometric estimates and comparative
evaluation of diagnostic methods for malaria parasitemia in pregnant women and newborn babies in southwest
Nigerian communities was investigated in this study. Demography, BMI of mothers and anthropometric data of the
newborn children were analysed for malaria infection risk. Venous blood sample from pregnant mothers (n=112)
attending routine antenatal clinics and the cord blood during delivery of the newborn (n=112) were analysed
Plasmodium infection and comparative evaluation of the diagnostic performance of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT),
Giemsa Microscopy and PCR assay were evaluated for specificity and sensitivity using the multivariate logistic
analysis. Among the pregnant women from various tribes, 90.9% were of the Yoruba tribe, 70.2% had secondary
school education, 63.6% belonged to mid-income class, 72.7% had received Intermittent preventive treatment (IRT)
and 37.5% slept under ITN (p<0.05). A significant decrease in average BMI of the malaria positive mothers from
all study locations (28.18 Kg/m2
, 25.05 Kg/m2 and 26.30 Kg/m2
) was observed compared to the average BMI of the
non- infected pregnant mothers (p= 0.034). The anthropometric values of infected babies significantly decreased in
chest circumference ranging between 20.44 to 21.83cm compared 23.15cm in uninfected babies (p<0.05). The average malaria parasite density in infected mothers and babies (18,345 and 6,486 per 200WBC) with higher prevalence of 11.78% and 8.00% respectively of Plasmodium falciparum was found in infected mothers and infected babies respectively, compared to other Plasmodium species. Higher Plasmodium detection rate by PCR (21.62%) for both mothers and babies compared to microscopy and RDT was recorded. Poor education, poverty and poor use of preventive measures are major risk factors for the high prevalence of malaria among pregnant women. PCR-based methods should be considered as part of diagnosis for early detection of mother-to-child transmission of
malaria and reduction of risk of infection for the newborn particularly in endemic areas