This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of malaria parasite
among blood donors at the Police Clinic Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The standard
parasitological techniques using both thick and thin blood films from the donors for the
detection of malaria parasite was followed. Venous blood was collected from 200 blood donors
and films were made on clean greese-free glass slide and stained with 10%Giemsa stains and
viewed under the microscope using the oil immersion objective. Of the 200 samples examined,
56 (28.00%) were positive with
Plasmodium falciparium
. The highest prevalence among the
males 53(26.50%) and between the ages 21-30years and only 3 (1.50%) of females were
positive. Donors having the blood group O were more infected (60.70%) than the other blood
groups and the lowest was blood group AB (5.40%). This result shows that there is a relatively
high prevalence of malaria parasite among the blood donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It is,
therefore, recommended that malaria parasite screening test be included among other blood
screening tests before any transfusion to avert the deleterious effects of malaria on recipients.
