Prevalence Of Malaria And Intestinal Parasitic Co-Infection Among Diabetic Patients In Calabar.

Background: Malaria and intestinal parasitosis is a public health problem among diabetic patients, therefore, this work evaluates the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection and malaria co-infections in diabetics. Materials and Methods Capillary blood and fecal samples were collected from 190 diabetic patients at the outpatient clinic of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital and Navy Reference Hospital Calabar and another batch of capillary blood and fecal samples from 110 non-diabetic subjects. The stool samples were examined macroscopically and microscopically by direct smear and formol- ether concentration method and also stained by modified Ziehl- Neelsen acid fast stain. The thick and thin blood film were stained with 10% Giemsa stain and viewed microscopically. Result: Amongst the test subjects, malaria parasites had a prevalence rate of 30 (15.8%), intestinal parasites had a prevalence rate of 48 (25.3%), and prevalence of co-infection with malaria parasites and intestinal parasites were 8 (4.2%), the difference was statistically significant (p= 0.036). Amongst the non-diabetic subjects, prevalence of malaria parasites was 12 (10.9%), intestinal parasites had a prevalent rate of 12 (10.9%) and a co-infection prevalence rate of 12 (3.6%). Amongst the diabetic patients, subjects aged 21-30 years had the highest infection rate of 14 (70.0%) for malaria parasites while 31-40 years had the highest infection of 8 (57.1%) for intestinal parasites the difference was statistically significant p = 0.0001. Amongst the non-diabetic subjects, age group 31-40 had the highest prevalence rate for malaria parasites 4(28.6%) and intestinal parasites 6(42.9%), while age group 31-40 and 41-50 had the highest prevalent rates of 2(14.3%) for co-infection. Amongst the diabetic patients, male subjects had a higher prevalence rates for malaria parasites, intestinal parasites and co-infection of 20(33.3%), 26(43.3%) and 6(10.0%) respectively which was statistically significant (p= 0.001). For the non-diabetic subjects, females had a higher prevalence rate for malaria infection 8(13.3%), while males had a higher prevalence rate for intestinal parasites and co-infection of 8(16.0%) and 4(8.0%) respectively, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.250). Hookworm was the most observed parasite, 18(37.5%), Ascaris lumbricoides, 14 (29.2%), Cryptosporidium parvum, 8 (16.7%), Cyclospora cayetanensis, 4 (8.3%), Trichuris trichiura, 2 (4.2%) and Microsporidia, 2 (4.2%). Conclusion: Based on findings in this study, this work has shown a prevalence of intestinal parasites (25.3%), and prevalence of malaria infection (15.8%) in diabetic subjects; and this study also illustrate the prevalence of malaria and intestinal parasitic co- infection of 4.2%, and the need to put in place strategies for the control of the parasite among this group of patients.