Autor(es): Baba Marycelin, Logue Christopher Hugh, Oderinde Bamidele, Abdulmaleek Hauwa, Williams Joshua, Lewis James, Laws Thomas R, Hewson Roger, Marcello Alessandro, D' Agaro Pierlanfranco

Resumo: Clinical symptoms of malaria - typhoid infections are virtually indistinguishable from those initially seen in many arbovirus infections. Here we describe arbovirus co-infection detected in 310 sera samples collected from febrile, clinically suspected malaria/typhoid patients in Borno State, Nigeria. Tested initially for Plasmodium falciparum by microscopy - for Salmonella Typhi by Widal test, samples were subsequently tested for chikungunya (CHIKV), yellow fever (YFV), dengue (DENV) - West Nile viruses (WNV) by plaque reduction neutralization test. While 92% of patients tested positive for malaria, typhoid, an arbovirus infection, or a combination of one or more of these types of infections, less than 1% of the patients tested positive for malaria alone - only 3.9% tested positive for typhoid alone.  Approximately half of the patients tested positive for infection with a single arbovirus (48%) regardless of the presence or absence of malaria or typhoid. Of those who showed 90% to 95% virus neutralization, 67.7% had neutralizing antibodies against DENV, 50% against CHIKV, 25% against WNV - 8.7% against YFV. Eight per cent tested negative against all six pathogens, suggesting that other arboviruses not tested for in this study may also be circulating in Nigeria. The results suggest that misdiagnosis of arbovirus co-infections as malaria infections, combined with a lack of virus surveillance - underreporting of arbovirus infections, increases the potential for undetected - uncontrolled spread of important vector-borne arboviruses becoming serious underlying public health concerns in Nigeria.

Imprenta: Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, v. 7, n. 1, p. 51-59, 2013

Identificador do objeto digital: 10.3855/jidc.2411

Descritores: Chikungunya virus - Arbovirus ; Chikungunya virus - Pathogenesis ; Chikungunya virus - Proteins ; Chikungunya virus - Antibodies ; Chikungunya virus - Serology ; Chikungunya virus - Viral infections ; Chikungunya virus - Serology ; Chikungunya Virus - Virus ; Chikungunya virus - Chikungunya fever ; Chikungunya virus - Dengue ; Chikungunya virus - Epidemiology ; Chikungunya virus - Immunology ; Chikungunya virus - Public health

Data de publicação: 2013