Malaria has been one of the leading public health concerns worldwide particularly in developing countries. This study was aimed to determine malarial prevalence in local population of district Kohat in Khyber-Pakhthunkhwa province of Pakistan, within the study tenure of three months (April to June). Total 560 blood samples from suspected individuals were collected. These samples were then subjected to microscopic detection of Plasmodium by developing thin and thick blood smears followed by giemsa staining. Among all collected samples, only 137 (24.46%) samples were positive for malaria. Further investigation showed that out of positive samples, 129 persons (94.16%) were infected with Plasmodium vivax while remaining 8 persons (5.84%) were infected with Plasmodium falciparum. Highest number of infected-ratio (35.77%) belonged to the age group “11-20 years”, while least prevalence (2.19%) was found in age group “51 years and above”. Malarial infection ratio was higher in males 54.74% compared to females 45.26%. It has been concluded from the study that the malarial prevalence is high in Kohat, which may be due to the availability of favorable breeding places for malarial parasites and lack of effective preventive measures in study area.
