Screening and Co-Morbid Association of Visceral Leishmaniasis and Diabetes in Osun State, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/njbmb.v40i1.9Keywords:
Visceral leishmaniasis, surveillance, co-morbidity, Buffy coat, kidney function, liver functionAbstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and causes the second-largest parasite-related mortality in the world after malaria. Its treatment with antimonial drugs has been known to also precipitate diabetes in the patients. However, the occurrence of the disease is hitherto quite alien in Southwestern Nigeria. This sero-epidemiology surveillance was carried out to ascertain VL incidence in Osun State, Nigeria, and to investigate the association of the disease co-morbidity with diabetes viz-a-viz implication on biochemical parameters of kidney and liver functions. A total of 272 volunteers across the State were enrolled on this study. All samples were screened for leishmaniasis using capillary, buffy coat and ELISA methods, concurrently. Liver and kidney function parameters were assayed spectrophotometrically, and comparisons were made between the methods, and outcome of parameters among seronegative and seropositive participants. The capillary technique did not detect (0%), the thin buffy coat detected 2 (2.1%) whereas ELISA detected 44 (16.2%) leishmaniasis cases among the participants. There were statistically significant (p < 0.05) decreased urea, increased creatinine, elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in Leishmania-infected participants compared to those uninfected. It is interesting to note that urea, creatinine, ALT and AST levels of participants having a co-morbidity of VL-diabetes and VL-diabetic foot ulcer did not change significantly compared to the Leishmania-infected participants without diabetes or the foot ulcer. This study indicated that Leishmania infection may be a singular factor that perturbs the kidney and liver enzymes. Therefore, VL does not show association with diabetes or diabetic foot ulcer co-morbidity in the population studied. There has not been any reported case of VL in Osun State prior to this study. It, therefore, suffices that the infectious disease has hitherto remained un- or mis-diagnosed.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Ebenezer I. O. Ajayi, Fadiya V. Oluwadamilola, Adeyemi J. Atanda, Musa A. Muhibi, Monsuru A. Adeleke, Abdulrasheed Usman (Author)
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