Author(s):

Maha Younes*

The Corona pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) calls on the Saudi government to take action to control the infection. The government closed borders, prohibited travel, limited outdoor movements, and told primary and secondary care facilities to reduce all regular non-urgent health services. It is not known whether these measures have impacted the prevalence of haemoparasite infections. This study has therefore been carried out to investigate this issue. Dataset of (250) blood samples submitted to the King Faisal Medical Complex (KFMC) Parasitology Laboratory in Taif, Saudi Arabia for p examination during the pandemic (January-december 2020) and 200 samples submitted during the corresponding months of the previous year (Januarydecember 2019) were extracted and analyzed. Overall, 15.2% (38/250 of samples were parasites positives;17% (34/200) before and 8% (4/50) during the pandemic, with 60% reduction.There was a significant difference in gender-parasitism between the two periods where the majority of parasitism were for males (p<0.001). Infections were frequent in patients aged 15-44 years both before (31/200; 15.5%) and during (4/50; 8%) the pandemic, with significant difference observed between the two cohorts (p<0.002). Moreover, the majority of infected patients were non-Saudi (89.5%; 34/38), with a significant difference in nationality reported,(p=0.024). Plasmodium falciparum was identified in 24(63.2%)) of all positive samplesPlasmodium vivax was identified in 13(34.2%),Plasmodium ovale 1(2.6%).In parallel with our research hypothesis, a substantial decrease in the burden of haemoparasitic infections was recorded with the lock-down measures taken during the Corona pandemic.