ISSN 2736-173X
African Journal of Malaria and Tropical Diseases ISSN 4123-0981 Vol. 3 (6), pp. 162-166, June, 2015. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
A study of the prevalence of malaria and typhoid fever co-infection in Abakaliki, Nigeria
*Osagi H. Dennis, Anouche M. Ruth and H. E. Oluchukwu
1Department of Applied Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
2Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benin, Benin, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Accepted 16 May, 2015
Abstract
A total of 250 blood samples were collected from febrile patients with clinical symptoms of malaria and typhoid fever. They were examined for malaria parasite and typhoid fever using parasitological examination, bacteriological and cultural techniques respectively. The result showed that 33 (13.2%) samples were positive for malaria parasite, 53 (21.2%) were positive for typhoid fever by the widal test and 2 (0.8%) were positive by culture method. Fourteen patients (5.6%) had malaria and typhoid fever co-infection which was significantly high when diagnosed by widal test than by cultural method (0.8%). The statistical analysis showed no significant relationship with patient’s age, sex and spatial distribution but significant relationship was observed with patient’s occupation.
Keywords: Prevalence, Plasmodium falciparum, Salmonella typhi, parasitological, bacteriological, culture.