Prevalence of malaria and typhoid coinfection among patients in some hospitals in Samaru, Zaria

Abstract

Background: A large number of staff and students live off-campus (cannot be accommodated on campus) because of limited space. Most of them live in houses where there are no clean, safe drinking water and poor or no drainage system. The investigation was carried out by screening blood samples of patients who attended the Ahmadu Bello University Clinic (Sickbay) and Jama'a hospital in Samaru, Zaria to determine the occurrence of malaria and typhoid parasites in the area. Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected with new disposable syringes from 264 patients during the period of study of 3 months. Blood films were stained with Giemsa stain, air- dried, treated with immersion oil, and examined under high-power objective of the microscope. Malaria parasites were identified based on their ring forms. The Widal test was used to detect the presence of Salmonella antibodies in the patient's serum. Result: Majority of the people screened 143 (84.1%) adults were not infected while 27 (15.9%) had malaria parasites in their blood stream. Only 20 (21.3%) of the children screened were positive for malaria parasites. Two Plasmodium parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax were detected in the blood samples. Plasmodium falciparum was found to be significantly higher than P. vivax . More adults from age 19 and older had typhoid pathogens (57.0%) in their blood samples than children who were 18 years and younger (21.2%). A small but significant proportion (15.2%) of those screened were co-infected with malaria and typhoid. Conclusion: Malaria and typhoid are diseases of poverty that are still endemic in developing countries. It requires the combined effort of the government at all levels, the scientific community and co-operation of every member of the society to conquer these re-emerging diseases.