Investigations of dengue virus and <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> among febrile patients receiving care at a tertiary health facility in Osogbo, south-west Nigeria

Abstract

Both dengue and malaria are diseases of the tropical and sub-tropical regions having similar symptoms especially among the febrile subjects. A descriptive hospital-based study was carried out among randomly selected 170 consenting febrile patients ((m= 92; f=78) age ranged <1 to 55 years (mean age=27.2) attending LAUTECH teaching hospital, Osogbo, between March 2015 and February 2016. The detection of Plasmodium parasites was screened by RDT and confirmed by microscopy while primary dengue virus detection was investigated using ELISA technique. The overall rate of 41.7% was obtained for P. falciparum while 1.8% was reported for dengue infection. Analysis by age and sex showed that the rate of P. falciparum was higher among male (42.0%) than female with highest rate (22.2%) was peaked among age range 16-25 years and 36-45 years respectively with no statistical associations (p = 0.469; OR =1.26, 95% CI 1.21-2.31). Infection rate for dengue was higher in females (2.6%) than males (1.2%) and found among age ranged of 16-25 and 26-35 years respectively. Also, dengue virus P. falciparum co-infection rate (0.6%) was found among participant age ranged 26-35 years. However, there were no statistical associations between age/sex in relation to dengue and malaria infections (p = 0.359; OR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.34-2.66) in this study. This study reported high rates of dengue and malaria infections among the community dwellers. There is need to ascertain the actual seroprevalence of dengue and malaria infections among the febrile patients in rural and urban centers together with those accessing care in our healthcare facilities in Nigeria.

Keywords: Dengue/malaria infections; mosquitoes; fever; Osogbo community; Nigeria