Epidemiological Studies on CO-infection of Malaria and Schistosoma haematobium in Igede Land, Benue State Nigeria

Abstract

The double burden of malaria and schistosomiasis coinfection in children and adults poses an obvious public health challenge particularly in terms of rate of morbidity and mortality among human populations. While both diseases geographically overlap. This current study investigated the epidemiological determinants of malaria, schistosomiasis transmission among children and   adults in Igede land, Benue state, Nigeria. School and pre-school children and adult aged 3- 30 and above years were enrolled from ten communities in Igede land- five from each LGAs of Oju and Obi, Benue State, Nigeria. The work started from August, 2023 to April, 2024 using a community based cross sectional approach. Capillary blood samples were obtained, and each was examined for malaria parasite using RDT and microscopy. Thick and thin blood smears were prepared, dried, and stained with Giemsa 10% for 10min.Thin smears were fixed with methanol before staining When thick films were positive, thin films were read for species determination. One species of plasmodium (P. falciparum) was seen. Urine samples were assessed for the presence of S. haematobium eggs using the standard urine configuration and sedimentation techniques. Out of the 1000 participants surveyed 437 were observed to be infected with malaria, 146 with schistosomiasis and 39 with coinfection of malaria and schistosomiasis. This translated to overall prevalence of 43.70%, 14.60% and 3.90% respectively in the study area. It was revealed that P. falciparum was responsible for the persistent coinfection in the study area.  Co infections were higher in males in the 3-15 years age groups.  It was reported that P. falciparum had co-infection of 97.40% with S. haematobium as the only Plasmodium Sub specie (sp.) in the coinfection.