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8th Edition of World Congress on Infectious Diseases

June 09-11, 2025 | Rome, Italy

June 09 -11, 2025 | Rome, Italy
Infection 2023

Effect of dietary intervention on the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria among 6-18-month-old children in rural Malawi

Speaker at Infectious Diseases Conferences - Hany Sady Shokry Redah
Tampere University, Finland
Title : Effect of dietary intervention on the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria among 6-18-month-old children in rural Malawi

Abstract:

Background: The complex interaction between malaria and undernutrition leads to increased mortality and morbidity rate among young children in malaria-endemic regions. Results from previous interventions suggest that improving nutritional status of young children may reduce the burden of malaria. This study tested a hypothesis that provision of lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) or corn-soy blend (CSB) supplementation to 6-18 -month-old children in Malawi would reduce the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria among them.
Methods: A total of 840 6-month-old children were enrolled in a randomized trial. The participants received 12-month supplementation with three different daily dietary supplementations: CSB, soy-LNS, or milk-LNS, and one control group without supplementation. The prevalence rate of asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) was determined by real-time PCR from the participant’s dried blood spots (DBS) collected at the baseline and every three months after. The global null hypothesis was tested using modified Poisson regression to estimate the prevalence ratio (PR) between the control group and three intervention groups at all ages combined. All the models were adjusted for malaria at baseline, season of DBS sample collection, site of enrolment, and household asset Z-score.
Results: In all children combined, the prevalence of P. falciparum was 14.1% at enrollment, 8.7% at 9 months, 11.2% at 12 months, 13.0% at 15 months and 22.4% at 18 months of age. Among all samples that were taken after enrolment, the prevalence was 12.1% in the control group, 12.2% in the milk-LNS, 14.0% in soy-LNS, and 17.2% in the CSB group. Compared to children in the control group the prevalence ratio of positive malaria tests was 1.19 (95% CI 0.81 - 1.74; P=0.372) in the milk-LNS group, 1.32 (95% CI 0.88 - 1.96; P=0.177) in the soy-LNS group and 1.72 (95% CI 1.19 - 2.49; P=0.004) in the CSB group.
Conclusion: The sample findings do not support a hypothesis that LNS or CSB supplementation would reduce the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria among Malawian children. In contrast, there was a signal of a possible increase in malaria prevalence among children supplemented with CSB.

Biography:

Dr. Hany Sady, PhD in Molecular Parasitology from the University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia in 2016. I joined as a researcher Prof. Dr. Per Ashorn’s research group at the Center for Child, Adolescent, and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University. I am an assistant professor at Hodeidah University in Yemen. I was born in Hodeidah, Yemen.

During my PhD degree, I worked as a research assistant, and I managed to publish 19 research articles (Tier 1). I got a dean’s award in Academic Session 2010/2011 as an appreciation certificate for my excellent achievements in the master`s academic grade in the master’s degree of Health Science (Biomedical Sciences) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia.

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