ANALYZING THE PREVALENCE AND INCIDENCE OF TYPHOID FEVER, MALARIA AND THEIR COINFECTIONS IN FEBRILE SUBJECTS OF URBAN INDIA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: Typhoid fever and malaria remain major public health threats in developing countries and tropical regions. In endemic regions, people are at a very high risk of developing both the disease at the same time with significant overlapping of associated symptoms and signs

Aims: The present cross-sectional clinical trial was undertaken to assess the prevalence, typhoid fever, malaria, and their coinfections in urban Indian subjects with fever.              

Materials and Methods: In 180 subjects, demographic data and clinical features of all the study subjects were recorded. For assessing typhoid fever, a slide agglutination test was done using H (flagellar) and O (somatic) antigen kits for S.typhi. The collected data were subjected to statistical evaluation for results formulation.

Results: Total positive malaria cases were 37.22% (n=67). Among 67 positive cases, 43.28% (n=29) were seen to have P.vivax, 40.29% (n=27) had P. Falciparum and mixed infection were seen in 16.41% (n=11) subjects. Typhoid and malaria coinfection was seen in 6.66% (n=12) of study subjects. On correlating typhoid fever, malaria, and coinfections with demographic characteristics and clinical characteristics in the study subjects, it was seen that the age groups of 2 years to 10 years were associated with malaria, and the association was statistically significant with p=0.03.

Conclusion: Within its limitations, the present study concludes that the coinfections are common owing to the high prevalence and overlapping symptoms of malaria and typhoid fever. Poor hand washing habits are associated with typhoid fever significantly. 

Keywords: Coinfections, Malaria, P. Falciparum, S. typhi, Typhoid fever