Uncomplicated Malaria and Intestinal Helminth Co-Infections among Schoolchildren in Abobo District, Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)

Abstract

Malaria and soil-transmitted helminth infections are morbidity causes in most tropical areas in the world. In Côte d'Ivoire, their association greats a major public health problem and their coexistence is the subject of very few studies. The current study investigated uncomplicated malaria and intestinal helminths co-infection among schoolchildren in Abobo District, Abidjan. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 256 children aged 2 to 15 recruited at the Anonkoua-Kouté Urban and Community Health Centre and at the El-Rapha health centre in the Commune of Abobo in Abidjan. Blood and stool samples were collected from each child. A thick drop examination was carried out on the blood samples whereas the parasitic examination test consisted of a direct microscopic examination, the simplified Ritchie and the Kato techniques. The overall prevalence amounted to 50.3% and Plasmodium falciparum was the only species found. The soil-transmitted helminth infection was found at 15.2%. Co-infestation P. falciparum/intestinal helminth infection was 9.8%. The most found helminth was Ascaris lumbricoides (11.7%). The co-infested subjects had a relatively higher average plasmodia density (23,865 trophozoïtes/µL) than those suffering from malaria only (20,876 trophozoïtes/µL). However, this association was not non-significant when multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed (Adjusted OR = 1.20, p = 0.066). This study shows a low prevalent of co-infection malaria and Soil-Transmitted helminths and a trend of a higher P. falciparum parasitic density among children infected mostly by A. lumbricoides. The associations between malaria and helminth infections detected in this study were not conclusive and hence needs further investigation.