Last Updated: 15/10/2025
Pregnancy-associated malaria: molecular diagnosis, prevalence and risk factors in the Juruá Valley, Brazilian Amazon
Objectives
The main objective of this project is to determine the prevalence and risk factors for malaria associated with pregnancy in the municipality of Cruzeiro do Sul.
The specific objectives are to:
- conduct molecular diagnosis of malaria in samples of maternal venous blood collected at the time of delivery and between the 24th and 28th weeks of gestation, over a year;
- investigate the association between sociodemographic and nutritional characteristics of pregnant women and the risk of malaria during pregnancy; and
- evaluate the the prevalence of congenital malaria through the diagnosis of malaria in samples of umbilical cord of newborns.
Pregnancy-associated malaria is an important morbidity factor for the mother, fetus and throughout early childhood. It is related to fetal death, miscarriage, intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, low birth weight and increased maternal and neonatal mortality. Despite its public health importance, there are no consolidated global estimates of maternal morbidity and mortality from malaria; neither are the incidence and clinical implications of malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax during pregnancy precisely known. The Juruá Valley, in the state of Acre, is the main area of malaria transmission in the Brazilian Amazon. Cruzeiro do Sul, the largest city in the region, in 2013 accounted for 11% of malaria cases in Brazil. In the following year, the city was responsible for 25% of the cases of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum in the country. The results of this study may represent an important subsidy for policies to control gestational malaria in Brazil.
Jul 2016 — Mar 2018
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