Etiological profile of fever cases admitted to a rural hospital - A 7 year study

Abstract

Acute febrile illness is region specific, has similar clinical presentations but with varied aetiologies. This study done over a period of 7 years is indented to give an insight in to the diseases endemic to this region so that the irrational use of drugs and diagnostic can be prevented. To identify the etiology of fever cases admitted to a rural hospital in the last 7 years.Materials and methods: Case records of 2589 cases comprising all adult patients (≥18 years) admitted to the hospital with temperature ≥38ºC, less than 14 days duration with no specific foci of infection by history or physical examination were included. Diagnosed cases of fever due to other causes were excluded. Of the 2589 cases 64.73% were due to Dengue virus, 24.4% were of Plasmodium vivax etiology. 4.17% were of plasmodium falciparum etiology. In 3.01% both plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax were positive.1.54% were due to hepatitis A, 1 % were due to leptospirosis, 0.03% were due to measles and 0.07% was due to tuberculosis. The etiological profile has changed from malaria being the most common cause of fever in the year 2013, 2014 to dengue from January 2015 to December 2019. In our study dengue was seen to be the most common etiology, followed by malaria, leptospirosis, hepatitis A and tuberculosis were the less common causes for acute febrile illness. Understanding the local prevalence of the disease will be helpful in diagnosis and treatment of febrile cases.