Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 29;23(1):183.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-023-08157-4.

Spatiotemporal overlapping of dengue, chikungunya, and malaria infections in children in Kenya

Aslam Khan #  1   2 , Donal Bisanzio #  3 , Francis Mutuku  4 , Bryson Ndenga  5 , Elysse N Grossi-Soyster  6 , Zainab Jembe  7 , Priscilla W Maina  7 , Philip K Chebii  7 , Charles O Ronga  5 , Victoria Okuta  5 , A Desiree LaBeaud  6
Affiliations

Spatiotemporal overlapping of dengue, chikungunya, and malaria infections in children in Kenya

Aslam Khan et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Malaria, chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and dengue virus (DENV) are endemic causes of fever among children in Kenya. The risks of infection are multifactorial and may be influenced by built and social environments. The high resolution overlapping of these diseases and factors affecting their spatial heterogeneity has not been investigated in Kenya. From 2014-2018, we prospectively followed a cohort of children from four communities in both coastal and western Kenya. Overall, 9.8% were CHIKV seropositive, 5.5% were DENV seropositive, and 39.1% were malaria positive (3521 children tested). The spatial analysis identified hot-spots for all three diseases in each site and in multiple years. The results of the model showed that the risk of exposure was linked to demographics with common factors for the three diseases including the presence of litter, crowded households, and higher wealth in these communities. These insights are of high importance to improve surveillance and targeted control of mosquito-borne diseases in Kenya.

Keywords: Chikungunya virus; Children; Dengue virus; Kenya; Malaria.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study sites in western and coastal Kenya. The shaded regions near the city/village names are the respective zones for this study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trend of malaria prevalence, DENV and CHIKV seroprevalence and seroconversion. Trend of malaria prevalence, DENV, and CHIKV prevalence and seroconversions by village. A Malaria positivity trended in the cohort over time, B DENV seroprevalence trended over time with highest positivity found in Msambweni, C CHIKV seroprevalence trended over time with highest positivity found in Chulaimbo, D DENV seroconversions trended demonstrating stability over time, E CHIKV seroconversions trended over time demonstrating stability
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Spatial pattern of malaria prevalence, DENV and CHIKV seroprevalence. Each box represents 100m x 100m square area to reflect the maximum flight distance of the mosquito vectors. Statistically significant hotspots for these pathogens are outlined by the red lines with areas of overlap in the same region for the different pathogens
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rhee C, Kharod GA, Schaad N, et al. Global knowledge gaps in acute febrile illness etiologic investigations: a scoping review. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019;13(11):e0007792. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007792. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hammond SN, Balmaseda A, Pérez L, et al. Differences in dengue severity in infants, children, and adults in a 3-year hospital-based study in Nicaragua. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2005;73(6):1063–1070. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2005.73.1063. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pothapregada S, Kamalakannan B, Thulasingham M, Sampath S. Clinically profiling pediatric patients with dengue. J Glob Infect Dis. 2016;8(3):115–120. doi: 10.4103/0974-777X.188596. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Torres JR, Echezuría L, Fernández M, Rísquez A. Epidemiology and disease burden of pediatric dengue in Venezuela. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2015;4(4):288–289. doi: 10.1093/jpids/piv057. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vogels CBF, Rückert C, Cavany SM, Perkins TA, Ebel GD, Grubaugh ND. Arbovirus coinfection and co-transmission: a neglected public health concern? PLoS Biol. 2019;17(1):e3000130. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000130. - DOI - PMC - PubMed