Assessment of the Prevalence of Malaria and Typhoid Fever among Apparently Healthy Undergraduates

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by parasitic protozoans (a type of unicellular microorganism) of the genus Plasmodium. Commonly, the disease is transmitted via a bite from an infected female Anopheles mosquito, which introduces the organisms from its saliva into a person’s circulatory system. In the blood, the protists travel to the liver to mature and reproduce. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever and headache which in severe cases can progress to coma or death. The disease is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions in a broadband around the equator, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americans Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be transmitted by humans. The vast majority of deaths are caused by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, while Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae cause a generally milder form of malaria that is rarely fatal. The result showed that prevalence of typhoid fever in both male and female are 9 (%) and 21 (21%) respectively. The distribution of this result was statistically significant (p<0.05; X2=4.745). The result showed that prevalence of typhoid fever in both male and female are 6 (6%) and 4 (4%) respectively. The distribution of this result was not statistically significant (p>0.05; X2=0.105). The result showed that prevalence of the co-infection in both male and female are 3 (3%) and 2 (2%) respectively. The distribution of this result was not statistically significant (p>0.05; X2=0.205). The result showed that co-infection was negatively correlated with typhoid fever in both male (r=-0.055) and female (r=-0.074) subjects. Also co infection was negatively correlated with malaria for male subjects (r=-0.044) while it is positively correlated with the female subjects (r=0.335). Similarly typhoid fever was negatively correlated with malaria in both male (r=-0.079) and females (r=-0.105) subjects. Conclusively, the results in this study showed that the prevalence of malaria and typhoid co-infections are low which means the no association was found between malaria and typhoid fever infections within the study area. Hence one cannot actually say that malaria may predispose to typhoid fever. Also cross reacting antigens are widely distributed in the microbial world and since there will always be repeated exposures to salmonella species in endemic regions, increased efforts should be made to find a better, more rapid, sensitive and specific clinical and cultural methods.