• Dipika Sur, Lorenz von Seidlein, Byomkesh Manna, Shanta Dutta, Alok K Deb, Banwari Lal Sarkar, Suman Kanungo, Jacqueline L Deen, Mohammad Ali, Deok Ryun Kim, Vinay Kumar Gupta, R Leon Ochiai, Ataru Tsuzuki, Camilo J Acosta, John D Clemens, and Sujit K Bhattacharya.
• National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33 CIT Rd. Scheme - XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata 700010, India.
• Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 2006 Aug 1; 100 (8): 725-33.

AbstractRecent research has indicated that the malaria burden in Asia may have been vastly underestimated. We conducted a prospective community-based study in an impoverished urban site in Kolkata, India, to estimate the burden of malaria and typhoid fever and to identify risk factors for these diseases. In a population of 60452 people, 3605 fever episodes were detected over a 12-month period. The blood films of 93 febrile patients contained Plasmodium (90 P. vivax, 2 P. falciparum and 1 P. malariae). Blood cultures from 95 patients grew Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi. Malaria patients were found to be significantly older (mean age 29 years) compared with patients with typhoid fever (15 years; P<0.001) but had similar clinical features on presentation. Having a household member with malaria, illiteracy, low household income and living in a structure not built of bricks were associated with an increased risk for malaria. Having a household member with typhoid fever and poor hygiene were associated with typhoid fever. A geographic analysis of the spatial distribution of malaria and typhoid fever cases detected high-risk neighbourhoods for each disease. Focal interventions to minimise human-vector contact and improved personal hygiene and targeted vaccination campaigns could help to prevent malaria and typhoid fever in this site.

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