Prevalence, Features and Risk Factors for Malaria Co-Infections amongst Visceral Leishmaniasis Patients from Amudat Hospital, Uganda

Journal article

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and malaria are two major parasitic diseases sharing a similar demographic and geographical distribution. In areas where both diseases are endemic, such as Sudan, Uganda, India and Bangladesh, co-infection cases have been reported, but features and risk factors associated with these co-morbidities remain poorly characterized. In the present study, routinely collected data of VL patients admitted to Amudat Hospital, Uganda, were used to investigate the magnitude of VL-malaria co-infections and identify possible risk factors. Nearly 20% of the patients included in this study were found to be co-infected with VL and malaria, indicating that this is a common condition among VL patients living in malaria endemic areas. Young age (≤9 years) was identified as an important risk factor for contracting the VL-malaria co-infection, while being anemic or carrying a skin infection appeared to negatively correlate with the co-morbidity. Co-infected patients presented with slightly more severe symptoms compared to mono-infected patients, but had a similar prognosis, possibly due to early diagnosis of malaria as a result of systematic testing. In conclusion, these results emphasize the importance of performing malaria screening amongst VL patients living in malaria-endemic areas and suggest that close monitoring of co-infected patients should be implemented

Authors: van den Bogaart, E; Berkhout, MMZ; Adams, ER; Mens, PF; Sentongo, E

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Journal: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 4
• Pages: e1617-e1617
• Publication date: 2012-04-10
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001617
• EISSN: 1935-2735
• ISSN: 1935-2727
• Language: English
• Keywords: Confidence interval; Case-control study; Multivariate analysis; Medicine; Leishmaniasis; Tropical medicine; Logistic regression; Internal medicine; Immunology; Odds ratio; Visceral leishmaniasis; Anemia; Risk factor; Malaria; Pathology