Abstract text
PREVALENCE OF MALARIA AND TYPHOID CO-INFECTION AMONG OUT PATIENTS ATTENDING IJANIKIN HEALTH CENTER, IJANIKIN, LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA
Ajayi J. B1 and Ajayi O. A2
Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Microbiology Unit, Igbesa and Araromi Ilogbo Senior Secondary School, Oko Afo, Lagos.
Background : Malaria and salmonella infections are endemic especially in developing countries; however malaria and salmonella co-infection is a rare entity with high mortality. An association between malaria and typhoid fever was first described in 1862 in North America as an entity called typho-malaria fever (Smith, 1982) Introduction: .A study was carried out on patients clinically diagnosed of malaria and typhoid at Otto Ijanikin health center, Lagos State, Nigeria to verify the degree of relationship between malaria and typhoid fever. Methods: A total number of 200 patients were sampled. Widal kit and Rapid diagnostic were used for typhoid and malaria diagnoses respectively. Plasmodium falciparum was the only parasite used to indicate the presence of malaria in the patients. Result: The study indicated that out of 200 patients, 50 (25%) were positive for malaria of which 16(32%) were male while 34 (68%) were female. A total number of 69 patients were positive for typhoid of which 24 were male and 45 were female. Out of 16 male with malaria, 10(62.5%) were typhoid positive and out of 34 female positive for malaria, 18(52.9%) were positive for typhoid infection. There is no positive relationship between malaria and typhoid (p < .05). The results also indicate that the differences in plasmodium falciparum parasiteamia and the antibody titre of Salmonnela is significant in using the widal test. Conclusion: Using only the widal test to diagnose typhoid fever infection for patients that are positive for malaria should be discouraged..