Abah AE, Grey A and Onoja H
Abstract Background: Transmission of Malaria by blood transfusion remains a significant public health problem in the malaria endemic regions like Nigeria. This study therefore was to investigate Plasmodium malaria and ABO blood group among blood donors in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Materials and methods: Prevalence of malaria infection was determined on 250 randomly selected blood donors (201 males and 49 females) using standard parasitological method and ABO blood group was done using the monoclonal antisera A, B, and D (murex Diagnostic, inc, Dartford, UK) on a slide and observing for agglutination. Results: The overall prevalence was 91(36.4%) out of which 84(41.8%) were males and 7(14.3%) were females. Prevalence of infection in relation to age showed that subjects within age’s 24-29 years were more infected with 48.6%. Followed by those within ages 30-35 years with 42.9%, and those within 42-47 years with 30.4% while the least infected age group were those within the ages 18-24 years with 23.7% rate of infections. ABO blood group of the population sampled showed that Blood group O+ was the most prevalent with 119(47.6%) followed by blood group B+ with 62(24.8%) and A+ with 31(12.4%) while the least prevalent was AB- with 0 prevalence. The prevalence of infection in relation to ABO blood group showed that blood group O+ had the highest prevalence with 42.9% followed by blood group A+ with 41.9% and groups AB+ and A- both tied with 33.3% while the least prevalence was recorded in blood group AB- with zero prevalence. The difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of malaria infection among blood donors is high and blood group O harbours more parasite than any other blood group in Bayelsa State.