Table 1.

Studies reviewed for prevalence of maternal P. falciparum parasitaemia in Ghana

Zone	Study	Period of data collection	Prevalence during pregnancy and method of detection	Prevalence at delivery and method of detection
Northern Savannah	Browne et al. [14]	July 1994–Apr 1995	60% by microscopy
	Clerk et al. [15]	Jun 2004–July 2006	47% overall by microscopy (32% and 59% before and after the rainy season respectively)
	van Spronsen et al. [20]	June 2010–August 2010		52% by microscopy (placental blood)
	Williams et al. [16]	31 May 2010–31 October 2011	58.6% detected by both microscopy or PCR (combined) 53.6% by RDT	22.2% by RDT (peripheral blood) 28.7% by placental histology (31.3% in primigravidae vs. 25.4% in secundigravidae)
	Ahenkorah et al. [19]	May 2013–May 2014	21.6% by microscopy
	Anabire et al. [17]	Oct 2016–Feb 2017	14. 1% by RDT 13.4% by PCR
	Agyemang et al. [10]	Sept 2016–Aug 2017	Overall 25.9% by microscopy at 36 weeks (35.8% prevalence of malaria in those with no SP, 30.8% prevalence among those who took 1–2 doses of IPTp-SP and about 17% among those who took ≥ 3 doses)
	Tibambuyah et al. [18]	Nov 2017–April 2018	13.8% by microscopy
	Mwin et al. [21]	Jan 2019–April 2019		7% by microscopy (placental blood)
Coastal Savannah	Ofori et al. [22]	Jan 2003–Jan 2004	19.7% by microscopy	35.7% by microscopy (placental blood)
	Stephens et al. [26]	July–August 2008	5% by microscopy	2.5% by microscopy (placental blood)
	Wilson et al. [23]	June–August 2009	28.4% overall by microscopy (15.3% among IPTp users vrs 44.7% among non-IPTp users)
	Orish et al. [24]	Jan–Oct 2010	23% overall by microscopy (34.6% in adolescents and 21.3% in adult pregnant women)
	Orish et al. [25]	Mar–Oct 2010	23.3% by microscopy
	Volker et al. [27]	Oct 2011–Jan 2012	10.6% by microscopy
	Tay et al. [28]	April–July 2012	16.5% by microscopy
	Lamptey et al. [29]	Nov 2013– Sept 2014	16.4% prevalence of asexual parasitaemia by PCR 29.7% prevalence of submicroscopic gametocytes also by PCR
	Quakyi et al. [34]	Dec 2015–May 2017	Among two ANC cohorts 3.5% and 3.8% by microscopy 8.9% and 9.4% by PCR 42.2% and 43.1% by ultrasensitive PCR	Among two delivery cohorts 2.4% and 0% by microscopy (peripheral blood) 4.4% and 3% by PCR (peripheral blood) 12.6% and 8.7% by ultrasensitive PCR (peripheral blood) 0.3% and 0% by microscopy (placental blood) 2.5% and 1.7% by PCR (placental blood) 6.9% and 3.7% by ultrasensitive PCR (placental blood)
	Kiptoo [33]	June 2016	5.5% by microscopy
	Obri et al. [35]	Jan 2017–Dec 2017		48.1% active placental infections by histology
	Afutu et al. [31]	April–June 2017	10.1% by microscopy 13.1% by RDT 13.8% by PCR
	Fondjo et al. [32]	July-–ug 2018	10.1–11.4% by microscopy (two cohorts in Accra and Tarkoradi)
	Offei [30]	12th June 2019–2nd July 2019	11.1% by RDT
Middle transitional/forest zone	Mockenhaupt et al. [38]	Nov–Dec, 1998	63% overall by microscopy and PCR
	Glover-Amengor et al. [36]	Rainy season of year 2000	35.1% by microscopy
	Mockenhaupt et al. [39]	Jan 2000–Jan 2001	34% by peripheral blood microscopy 53% by peripheral blood PCR 19% by an HRP2 assay	41% by placental blood microscopy 59% by placental blood PCR 35% using HRP2 assay on placental blood
	Tagbor et al. [46]	March 2003–December 2004	Overall RDT prevalence of 22% (monthly prevalence ranging 9–34%)
	Tutu et al. [40]	Nov 2005–March 2006	27.7% by microscopy
	Yatich et al. [37]	Nov–Dec 2006	36.3% by a monoclonal antibody assay
	Tagbor et al. [41]	March 2007–Sept 2008	16.3% by microscopy at enrolment (parasiste density ˂ 1000 parasites/microlitre 12.1% by microscopy at 36–40 weeks 23% by RDT (for symptomatic women)
	Asante et al. [47]	2008–2011		38% current or past placental parasitaemia by histology
	Osarfo et al. [42]	July 2011– Oct 2012	12% by combined RDT and microscopy 17% by RDT	28.6% by microscopy (peripheral blood) 23.8% by microscopy (placental blood)
	Asundep et al. [43]	July–August 2011	9% overall using HRP2 assay
	Ampofo et al. [44]	Sept 2012–April 2014	10.7% by microscopy at study enrolment 6% by microscopy at end of study
	Dosoo et al. [45]	July 2017–March 2019	20.4% by microscopy
	Fondjo et al. [32]	July 2018–August 2018	5.5% by microscopy