ACUTE UNDIFFERENTIATED FEBRILE ILLNESS AMONG ADULTS – A HOSPITAL BASED OBSERVATIONAL STUDY
Journal Title: Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences - Year 2013, Vol 2, Issue 14
Abstract
[b]BACKGROUND[/b]: Fever is a burning issue in the tropics and the most common cause of morbidity. Quite frequently this fever goes undiagnosed because of many reasons like the lack of diagnostic facilities, insufficient epidemiological data available on causes of fever, and so on. This research study was aimed to find out the etiology and clinical markers of Acute Undifferentiated Febrile Illness [AUFI] among the rural population of Southern India. [b]METHODOLOGY[/b]: This prospective, observational study was conducted at Government Villupuram Medical College and Hospital, a rural tertiary care centre in Tamil Nadu, India. Consecutive hospitalised adult patients [>16 years] with AUFI[5-14 days fever] were enrolled into the study from August 2010 to February 2012 [18 months].Upon enrollment, detailed history was recorded, physical examination done and basic blood tests including biochemical examination, smear study for malaria, blood cultures and serology for the commonly encountered infections were done according to study protocol. The patients were followed up until clinical recovery and convalescence. The data were entered in MS excel and analyzed using Epi-info software 2008 version. [b]RESULTS[/b]: A total of 403 patients were included in the study . The distribution of AUFI included Malaria 133[33%], Typhoid 83[20.59%], Dengue 42[10.4%], Leptospirosis 25[6.2%], and other causes 36[8.9%] and unknown cause 84[20.84%]. Malaria patients were significantly associated with jaundice, altered mentation, travel outside the district, elevated AST/ALT levels, thrombocytopenia and splenomegaly. Typhoid fever was associated with longer fever duration, abdominal pain, coated tongue, relative bradycardia, normal platelet counts and low leucocyte count. Dengue fever could be predicted by rash, pruritis, petechiae ,retro-orbital pain and low platelet counts. Leptospirosis patients showed significant association with conjunctival suffusion, muscle tenderness and subconjunctival hemorrhage. Weil's disease was noticeably rare. [b]Conclusion[/b]: Post monsoon upsurge of AUFI should be anticipated and preventive measures at personal and community levels planned. Clinical prediction of AUFI is possible with proper physical examination and judicious use of laboratory
Authors and Affiliations
Shivkumar Gopalakrishnan, Balaji Arumugam, Sangeetha Kandasamy, Subramaniam Rajendran, Babu Krishnan
Keywords
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- EP ID EP127819
- DOI 10.14260/jemds/533
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