Malaria during pregnancy continues to be a major health problem in endemic countries, with clinical consequences including death of both mother and child and attendant derangements in trace elements. This study is aimed at evaluating the relationship between the trace element antioxidant; Zinc 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 ante natal clinic of NnamdiAzikiwe 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 zinc was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry while the malaria density was determined by counting the parasites against white cells. From the results,zinc showed a significant decrease in pregnant women with malaria 7.81±4.28 µmol/L (p < 0.05) compared to pregnant women without malaria 8.68 ± 2.25 µmol/L, non-pregnant women with malaria 9.10 ± 3.36 µmol/L and non-pregnant women without malaria 10.48 ± 4.08 µmol/L ((F=11.01; p < 0.05). Zinc also showed a strong negative correlation with parasite density (r=0.41; p=0.001).
