Abstract:

Background and Objectives: Chikungunya and Dengue virus infections are the public health concern in many tropical and subtropical regions including Sub-Saharan Africa. These infections have been associated with a number of clinical manifestations such as fever, arthritis and congenital infections. Despite being common in these countries, their epidemiologies have not been well studied. This study aims at determining the prevalence and associated factors of Chikungunya and Dengue virus infection among adult febrile patients in Mwanza city Tanzania.

Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study involving 392 adult patients with fever was conducted in Mwanza city between May and July 2018. Structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. Blood samples were collected from consented participants in plain vacutainer tubes and sera were extracted. Detection of Chikungunya and Dengue virus were done by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Data was analyzed by using STATA version 13 as per study objectives.

Results: The median age for the participants was 31.51 (IQR: 24-43) years with the mean body temperature of 37.6 ± 1.4 Celsius. Majority of the participants 298 (76.02%) were females while most of them 193 (49.23%) had secondary education. Out of 392 adult febrile patents enrolled only 1 (0.26%, 95% CI: 0.2-0.7) was found to be infected with Dengue virus and none of them was infected with Chikungunya virus. None of the factors was associated with Chikungunya and Dengue virus infection.

Conclusion: Chikungunya and Dengue viruses are not the main etiology of fever among febrile patients in Mwanza city Tanzania. With decrease trend in malaria fever, further studies to establish other causes of fever in Mwanza are recommended.