Prevalence of Malaria at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mumbai, India

Das, Rashmita and Patil, Shilpa and Balakrishnan, Kavita and Bhagat, Chaitali and Subramanian, Arunagiri and Warke, Rajas and Chowdhary, Abhay (2021) Prevalence of Malaria at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mumbai, India. Journal of Advances in Microbiology, 21 (5). pp. 11-21. ISSN 2456-7116

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Abstract

Background: Malaria is caused by parasites of genus Plasmodium. It remains a major public health concern around the world. Though various diagnostic tools are available, there is an urgent need to use a more sensitive diagnostic method for early diagnosis to prevent unwanted outcomes.

Objectives: (i) To assess the prevalence of malaria in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai (ii) To detect and speciate Plasmodium by Peripheral Blood Smear (PBS), Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) and real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and to compare their performance characteristics.

Methodology: A hospital-based diagnostic study was carried over a period of 18 months. A total of 550 non-duplicated blood samples from clinically suspected cases of malaria were collected and subjected to three tests- PBS by Field’s staining, RDT and PCR to detect Plasmodium species. The agreement and the differences between the three tests were analyzed and the statistical significance was assessed using Chi-square test.

Results: Out of the 550 samples, 166 (30.2%) were positive for malaria by either of the three tests, of which 92 (55.42%), 119 (71.69%) and 161 (96.99%) samples were positive by PBS, RDT and PCR, respectively. P. vivax was the predominant Plasmodium species. The most significant finding was PCR detected mixed infections in 8.43% of cases whereas PBS and RDT could detect 0% and 1.20% of mixed infection, respectively. Considering PBS as gold standard, sensitivity of RDT and PCR was 100% and 97.83% and specificity was 94.10% and 84.50% respectively.

Conclusions: In this study, 30% of the population was infected with malaria with P. vivax being the predominant Plasmodium species. PCR helped identify more mono and mixed infections than conventional methods and would be a helpful adjunct for malaria diagnosis in tertiary care setup.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Journal Eprints > Biological Science
Depositing User: Managing Editor
Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2023 05:45
Last Modified: 05 Mar 2024 03:57
URI: http://repository.journal4submission.com/id/eprint/1559

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