BackgroundDengue and malaria have similar symptoms and arthropod vector and their mode of transmission coupled with differential diagnosis. Though typhoid fever differs from dengue and malaria by not having arthropod vector and different mode of transmission, it shares differential diagnosis with Dengue and Malaria which make misdiagnosis possible. This misdiagnosis of these three diseases has since been a major concern towards therapeutic administration because of their co-occurrence in many cases. MethodsThis study focused on the misdiagnosis of dengue fever for malaria or typhoid fever since the three have differential diagnosis and could co-occur. 741 samples were collected from malaria patient and 333 samples for typhoid fever outpatient at the health department facilities in rural communities of South West Nigeria. The samples were tested for dengue virus (DV) NS1 protein, anti DV IgM, anti DV IgG and RT-qPCR. ResultOf all the samples tested 315 (29.4%) were positive to DV NS1 while 50 (6.7%) and 13 (3.9%) of 714 malaria samples and 333 typhoid samples respectively had Dengue fever co-infection. Co-infection of the three types of fever occurred in 5 (0.5%). A total of 54 (5%) DV cases were wrongly diagnosed for malaria while 14 (1.3%) DV cases was wrongly diagnosed as typhoid. ConclusionConclusively, there was significant number of misdiagnosed cases of DV for either malaria or typhoid, hence it is recommended to include DV screening into routine hospital test especially in cases of malaria and typhoid negative by rapid diagnostic testing.

Opportunistic infections due microorganisms particularly bacteria have posed a threat and thus an addition burden on the management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections worldwide. The high prevalence of bacterial pathogens and the emergence of multiple drug resistance among such bacteria call for serious concern. Bacteriological examination of 320 women attending HIV clinics was carried out using standard microbiological techniques. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out by the disc diffusion technique by Bauer and CLSI. Of the 320 women, 200 (62.5%) had bacteria, 120 women were confirmed as HIV positive. Ninety (75%) of these women had both HIV-1 and HIV-2, twenty (16.7%) had only HIV-1 and 10 (8.3%) had only HIV-2. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were the predominant bacteria. Antibiogram of the bacterial isolates determined by using the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion showed that most of them were susceptible to augmentin, gentamicin, peflacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and amoxicillin but were highly resistant to commonly used, over-the-counter drugs like chloramphenicol, tetracycline and streptomycin. This thus poses additional burden on the healthcare system in its attempt to manage HIV using anti-retroviral drugs among other methods, along with immunity enhancing drugs while the search for HIV vaccines still continues.

Typhoid fever is a major health problem in developing countries especially in Nigeria where this infectious disease is endemic, with more concern in children. This prospective study was conducted in 3 Primary Health Centres on children diagnosed clinically of typhoid fever between January, 2017 and December, 2019. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of Salmonella serovars and antibiotic susceptibility pattern from faecal specimens of children diagnosed clinically based on symptoms of typhoid fever, while demographic information was recovered from their case notes and their mothers. The children were randomly selected having obtained informed consent from their mothers. Four hundred and twenty (420) stool specimens of children aged between 6 months and five years were cultured and serotyped using standard microbiological procedures for isolation and characterization of Salmonella and other enteric bacterial pathogens. The bacteria were isolated by using cultural methods on selective media using a series of biochemical tests and confirmed by using Microgen identification kits and API20E. Serological tests were carried out on suspected Salmonella and Vibrio isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was determined by using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. Bacteriological analysis of the faecal specimens revealed a total of 381 bacterial isolates, among which were 180 (42.9%) Salmonellae. Salmonella enteritidis was the most frequently isolated serovar, 84 (22%), followed by S. typhi, 56 (14.7%), S. paratyphi A, 30(7.9%), and S. typhimurium 10 (2.6%). Other bacteria recovered from the children included Shigella dysenteriae, 64 (16.8), Proteus mirabilis, 60(15.8%), Klebsiella oxytoca, 15(3.9%), Klebsiella ozaenae, 12( 3.2%) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, 10(2.6%) shows that the Salmonellae and other enteric bacteria showed sensitivity ranging from 70-96% for ampicillin, ciprofloxacin (83.3%-96.4%), gentamicin (56-97.5%), sparfloxacin (83.3-100%), ceftriaxone (83.3-96%) and cefuroxime (80-94%). They were however highly resistant to ampiclox, amoxicillin, and septrin which are over-the-counter drugs. The high incidence of multidrug resistance among Salmonellae and corresponding multidrug resistance among other enteric bacteria, thus posing problems of treatment failures are of great public health significance in a developing country like Nigeria.