NEW DELHI: An individual suffering from vector-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria and chikungunya can be affected by more than one pathogen at the same time, found a new study conducted by AIIMS Delhi.
The study, done by the biochemistry department of the medical institute found that Malaria and Dengue co-infections or Malaria can co-exist with other co-infecting pathogens like the bacterial species Leptospira and Orientia tsutsugamushi leading to acute febrile illnesses (AFI) or fevers.
It found that infections may also influence immune responses and treatment outcomes which have not been measured in this study.
For the study, AIIMS did a analysis of pathogenic infections in acute febrile illnesses patients admitted to the Medicine Department from July 2017 through September 2018 and tested for Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya Virus, Orientia tsu/sugamushi, and Leptospira.
"While Malaria and Dengue are transmitted by different species of mosquitoes, Leptospira is primarily transmitted through the contact of skin with contaminated water, vegetation or urine of infected animals. The group also found the presence of a zoonotically transmitted monkey malaria parasite species known as Plasmodium knowlesi in the study population. Although the mode of transmission of these pathogens are different, they thrive in warm and moist ecosystems of tropical countries," the study conducted by the premier institute found.
Many of the causative agents of acute febrile illnesses such as the malaria parasite, dengue virus and Chikungunya virus are co-endemic and co-seasonal in the tropical world. Therefore, these pathogens may co-infect individuals and lead to modulation of immune responses, change treatment outcomes and effect disease severity.
Understanding interactions are important since the design and success of vaccine candidates and therapeutic drugs will be influenced by the presence of outcome modifying co-pathogenic infections. "The problem is they are very difficult to distinguish at times owing to similar symptoms. If you cannot diagnose both, you can’t treat both. We continue to treat only one, the other remains untreated and symptoms remain. And if the correct diagnosis is not done, it can prove to be fatal. The pathogen which is untreated becomes drug-resistant because there is another drug. It cannot be treated with same medicines," said Dr Pragya Acharya, Associate Professor, Biochemistry.