Determination of Dengue Virus IGM Seroprevalence, Malaria Parasitaemia and Some Haematological Parameters of HIV Infected Individuals in Awka, Nigeria

Dengue fever is regarded as an important neglected Arboviral disease worldwide. This study aimed at investigating the prevalence of dengue IgM seroprevalence, malaria parasitaemia and some haematological parameters of HIV infected individuals attending Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital Amaku, Awka, Nigeria. A cross sectional study consisting of 188 participants was performed. The demographic data and possible risks factors of the subjects were obtained using well-structured questionnaire. Dengue virus IgM was analysed using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques, Malaria parasitaemia was determined using microscopy technique while some haematological parameters were evaluated using heamatology auto analyser (PE-6800 fully auto heamatology analyser procan). Statistical analysis was performed using the statistical package for social (spss) version 25. The results of this study showed that the prevalence of Dengue virus was 20.2% while that of Malaria was 37.2%. The co-infection of Dengue virus IgM antibodies and Malaria parasitemia was 8.51%. Plasmodium falciparium was seen as the only specie of malaria parasite present in the study. The results of some haematogical parameters of the Dengue virus seropositive participants as compared with the Dengue virus seronegative participants were statistically significant with neutrophils (p = 0.035), mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC = p<0.013), eosinophils (EOS = p<0.001) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV = p<0.001). This study suggests that Dengue maybe the emerging cause of fever of unknown origin among populations. This calls for urgent attention, adoption of immediate control measures and public health preventive actions against the disease so as to curb or mitigate the emergence as well as reduce the morbidity and mortality resulting from dengue burden especially in the immunocompromised individuals.