Malaria And Intestinal Helminth Co-infections Among Acute Febrile Outpatients In Arbaminch Health Center Southern Ethiopia.

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Introduction- Malaria is a disease which is caused by protozoan parasites. There are four malariarnspecies that infect and cause disease in humans, Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and P.rnovale. Helminths, on the other hand, are parasitic metazoans including a diverse groups or species whichrndiffers by their general external shape and the host organ they inhabit. The distribution of helminthesrnand Plasmodium widely overlap on the African continent and individuals in these endemic areas arernoften coinfected with combinations of these parasites. Such infections may have considerable healthrnconsequences, leading to more severe clinical symptoms and pathology than for infection with singlernparasite species. rnObjectives- The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of malaria and intestinalrnhelminth infections and/or co-infections among acute febrile outpatients who were suspected of malariarnin Arbaminch Health Center, Southern Ethiopia. rnMethodology- A cross sectional study was conducted from Nov 2010 to Jan 2011. A convenientrnsampling technique was employed in which individual patients coming to the health center during thernstudy period were included. Capillary blood was taken from each patient from finger prick using sterilernlancet for investigation of malaria parasites by thin and thick blood smear which was examined under oilrnimmersion microscope objective after stained by Giemsa. The thick smear was used to detect malariarninfection and parasite quantification, whereas the thin one was used to ident ify the Plasmodium species.rnStool specimen was also collected from each patient on clean plastic container and wet mount andrnformol-ether concentration technique were done to examine for parasitic intestinal helminthes. Statisticalrnsoftware package for social science (SPSS version 17) was used for data analysis. Percentages wererncalculated by using descriptive statistics, and logistic regression was also been calculated to determinernthe odds ratio (OR), P-value and 95% confidence interval. rnResults- Out of the total 384, 21.9% (84/384) patients has been found infected with malaria parasites,rn51.2% with P.vivax and 48.8% with P. falciparum, with males significantly more infected (27.8%) thanrnfemales (16.24%). Additionally, 26.3% (101/384) of patients were infected with intestinal helminthes inrnwhich soil transmitted helminthes were found to be predominant; like hookworm which accounted thernhighest (36%) followed by A. lumbricoides (27.9%) and T. trichiura (16.4%). Furthermore, malariaintestinalrnhelminthrnrncoinfection was observed in 7.8% (30/384) of acute febrile outpatients. The meanrnmalaria parasitaemia in patients infected with malaria only was significantly higher [10916.67 (95% CI, 10370.87-11462.47)parasites/µl of blood] than patients who are malaria-intestinal helminth coinfected,rnwhich was 7444.4 (95% CI, 7072.2-7816.6) parasites/µl of blood. rnConclusion- Malaria and intestinal helminthes were found to be the greatest treat (highly prevalent) inrnthis current study area, with considerable number of malaria-intestinal helminth coinfection. Appropriaterncontrol and prevention methods must be instituted in order to tackle these parasitic infections andrndecrease the morbidity and co-morbidity. Furthermore, detailed and integrated studies should be done torndemonstrate and investigate the prevalence, interactions and public health significance of malaria andrnintestinal helminthes.

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Malaria And Intestinal Helminth Co-infections Among Acute Febrile Outpatients In  Arbaminch Health Center Southern Ethiopia.

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