Studies on the Level of Selenium in Pregnant Women with Malaria (A Case Study of Nnewi South East Nigeria)

Malaria in the tropics has continued to be a threat to public health despite all efforts curb it, more so in pregnancy. The clinical consequences of this disease as it concerns mother and child have always been grievous sometimes leaving death in its wake. This work is aimed at examining the relationship between the trace element selenium and malaria density in pregnant women with malaria. A total of 460 subjects were recruited for the study, comprising 160 pregnant women with malaria attending the antenatal clinic of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi, Anambra, South East, Nigeria. The controls are 100 pregnant women without malaria attending the same clinic, 100 non-pregnant women with malaria and 100 non-pregnant women without malaria. The concentration of selenium was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry while the malaria density was determined by counting the parasites against white cells. From the results selenium showed a significant decrease in pregnant women with malaria 55.68±16.69 µg/L (p<0.05) compared to non-pregnant women without malaria 64.83±13.27 µg/L and a significant increase compared to pregnant women without malaria 32.94±14.41µg/L and non-pregnant women with malaria 36.44±9.59 µg/L ((F=42.91; p<0.05). Selenium showed a weak positive correlation with parasite density (r=0.27; p=0.004).