“Malaria And Typhoid Co-Infection In India: A Diagnostic Difficulty’’

Abstract

Malaria and Typhoid remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Various factors predispose the co infection of typhoid and Malaria. This study was planned to determine the actual number of cases suffering from typhoid malaria co-infection in our set-up and also to evaluate the efficacy of various tests for diagnosis of typhoid malaria co-infection in febrile patients in New Delhi. Overall 3010 patients were tested for Malaria and Typhoid, out of which 2260 (75%) were males and 750 (25%) were females. Out of 60/3010 cases of blood culture positive for Salmonella typhi, 48/60 were also positive for malaria parasite ( 36 Plasmodium vivaxand 12 Plasmodium falciparum) by peripheral smear examination, so the rate of co-infection by using Gold Standards for both the infections was 1. 59% (48/3010). No coinfection was recorded between S. paratyphi and malaria. On using serological techniques for estimation of typho malaria co infection, 105 samples were positive by widal and RDT (68 Plasmodium vivax and 37Plasmodium falciparum) and rate of co infection was found to be 3.48% (105/3010). However, on comparing results of typhi dot with RDT it was observed that 120 samples were positive for typhoid and malaria (77Plasmodium vivax and 43Plasmodium falciparum) both by typhi dot and RDT yielding co infection rate to be 4%.