Risk Factors for Typhoid Fever Occurrence and Recurrence in Gombe Metropolis, Gombe State, Nigeria

Abstract

Typhoid is a life-threatening disease that has remained endemic in parts of Africa and Asia where its burden is elevated by the inefficiency of control efforts which have been hampered by lack of epidemiological data, among others. In Nigeria, such data is absent in most of the States like Gombe where the disease has been rife for a long time, hence, to bridge that knowledge gap, this study was set up to determine the host-associated risk factors for typhoid occurrence and recurrence in Gombe. A questionnaire that was designed and validated for this location was used to obtain data from 663 respondents using simple random sampling and analyzed using the Chi-square test for association and binomial logistic regression to obtain risk factors for typhoid occurrence and recurrence, respectively. The study revealed that occurrences were statistically significantly associated with the variables for vaccination (χ2 = 39.729, p < 0.01), having houseboy/girl (χ2 = 16.909, p < 0.01), typhoid patient at home (χ2 = 13.393, p < 0.01), hand washing before handling food (χ2 = 22.856, p < 0.01), consuming iced/frozen items (χ2 = 16.805, p < 0.01), boiling drinking water (χ2 = 49.633, p < 0.01), and eating commercially available foods/drinks (χ2 = 27.864, p < 0.01), while recurrences were statistically significantly predicted by „not sure of been vaccinated‟ (OR = 2.962, CI = 1.290 to 6.802, p < 0.01), „not having another typhoid patient at home‟ (OR = 1.799, CI = 0.998 to 3.244, p < 0.01), and „drinking unboiled water sometimes‟ (OR = 2.130, CI = 1.023 to 4.434, p < 0.01). It is believed that these findings will guide efforts by the Government for health interventions against typhoid in the study area, thus improving the quality of life for the population.