Prevalence of plasmodium, leptospira and rickettsia species in Northern Tanzania: a community based survey

The overlap of symptoms, geographic and seasonal co-occurrence of and infections makes malaria diagnosis difficult, increasing the chances of misdiagnosis. The paucity of data on the prevalence and infections contributes to an overly diagnosis of malaria. We aimed to determine the prevalence and distribution of and infections in northern Tanzania. A community based, cross sectional survey was conducted in two sites in Northern Tanzania. PCR was used to detect and infections. The prevalence of and were 31/128 (24.2%) and 3/128 (2.3%), respectively. No Rickettsia infection was detected in any of the two sites. Taking study sites separately, infection was detected in 31/63(49.2%) of participants in Bondo while infection was detected in 3/65(4.6%) of participants in Magugu. was not detected in Magugu while no infections were detected in Bondo. Fever was significantly associated with infection (χ2= 12.44, p