Covid-19 In Patients Presenting With Malaria-Like Symptoms At Korle Bu Polyclinic, Accra

Abstract

Malaria is one of Ghana's most frequent illnesses and the most common cause of febrile sickness. The prevalence of malaria in patients who visit the Korle Bu Polyclinic in Accra with malaria-like symptoms is around 8%. It is therefore essential to look into COVID-19's contribution to malaria-like symptoms. Most infectious diseases including COVID-19 and arboviral infections mimic malaria due to the overlapping of non-specific symptoms they both share. This study investigated COVID-19 in patients presenting with malaria-like symptoms at the Korle Bu Polyclinic, Accra. A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients presenting with malaria-like symptoms at the Korle Bu polyclinic from June to August, 2021. A total of 300 patients who qualify for Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Testing, and met the criteria for the study, were selected using simple random sampling. Two to three millilitres of whole blood, nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples was collected for screening of Plasmodium falciparum and SARS-CoV-2 respectively. The whole blood sample was also used for COVID-19 antibody test and full blood count. Sixty out of three hundred (20%) study patients were positive for SARS-CoV-2 using Real-time PCR and twenty six out of three hundred (8.7%) tested positive using COVID-19 Rapid Antigen test. Majority were females (42/60; 70%), and participants had mean age of 28 years. Seven out of three hundred (2.3%) tested positive for Plasmodium falciparum using Malaria RDT and microscopy and eight out of three hundred (2.7%) using Nested Conventional PCR. Two coinfection of Plasmodium falciparum and SARS-CoV-2 were reported. Most of the patients came from the Ablekuma South district. Most patients with CT’s below 30 (High viral load) presented with 5 or more symptoms (p value <0.01). The most common symptom experienced by the study patients at the polyclinic was headache (95%; 57/60) followed by general body weakness and pain (78.3%;47/60), tiredness (60%; 36/60) and fever ( 51.7%; 31/60) Comorbidities reported were hypertension, diabetes, Asthma, hypertension and diabetes and none had sickle cell diseases. Most of the study patients had been previously exposure to SARS CoV-2 (113/300) and 66.7% (34/51) Astrazeneca vaccinated patients had no antibody. Due to the synergy of symptoms, screening for COVID-19 in patients presenting with malaria-like symptoms is vital for immediate diagnosis and treatment. Keywords: COVID-19, Korle Bu, Accra