A trend prevalence of visceral Leishmaniasis in West Armachiho District, Amhara Region, Northwest Ethiopia
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(2020) 6:23
RESEARCH
Open Access
A trend prevalence of visceral Leishmaniasis in West Armachiho District, Amhara Region, Northwest Ethiopia Addisu Gize1*, Addisu Workineh2 and Taddesse Hailu3
Abstract Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease caused by an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that affects animals and humans. An estimated 3.2 million people are at risk of VL, and 3700–7400 cases occur annually in Ethiopia. The highest numbers of VL cases have been previously reported from the North Western parts of the country, especially in West Armachiho District. The aim of this study was to determine the trend prevalence of VL at the study area. Methods: Health center based retrospective data were collected to determine the trend prevalence of VL among patients who had blood examination from January 2010 to August 2015. The blood samples were collected by finger pricking and the infections were confirmed by using rK39 antibody test. Result: Of the 9299 VL suspected cases, 1948 (21%) were positive for rK39 antibody test. Of these, 1757 (90.2%) were primary kala-azar cases, 167 (8.6%) were relapse and the remaining 24 (1.2%) were post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis cases. Conclusions: The prevalence of VL is still high in the study area. Therefore, early case detection, diagnosis, treatment, and timely analysis are essential. Keywords: Visceral Leishmaniasis, Trend, Prevalence, Armachiho
Introduction Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by a parasitic protozoan infection of genus Leishmania. The disease is endemic in 98 countries [1], as 200,000–400,000 new cases and 20,000–30,000 deaths occur annually. Leishmaniasis is most represented in East Africa [2], and most prevalent in the Northern lowlands, and Southern parts of Ethiopia [3]. In Ethiopia, an estimated 3.2 million people are at risk of acquiring VL, and 3700–7400 cases occur annually [4, 5]. The highest number of VL cases has
* Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 1 Department of Microbiology, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
been previously reported in the north western Ethiopia including West Armachiho District [4, 6]. The prevalence of VL is dynamic as its mode of transmission changes according to the environment, socio-economic status, and immune status of the population [7]. Marked increase in VL cases are associated with migration of non-immune labourers, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-VL co-infection, in the north western and lowland parts of the country respectively [8, 9]. The clinical manifestation of VL patients includes: fever (more than 2 weeks), fatigues, weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss, enlarged lymph nodes, hepatosplinomegally and sometimes bleeding [10]. Post Kala-azar
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medi
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