Abstract

Prevalence of Typhoid Fever and its Risk Factors in Lalo Assabi District, West Wollega, Oromiya, Ethiopia

Kumsa Eba and Damtew Bekele*

Typhoid fever is a cause of morbidity worldwide and a major public health problem in Ethiopia and other developing countries. The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence of typhoid fever and its risk factors among the study participants in rural and urban community of Lalo Assabi District, West Wollega Zone, Ethiopia. The study design used in this study was a community based cross sectional. The method used was a secondary data from all the District health stations and laboratory diagnosis. In the present retrospective study result, the prevalence in 2014- 2018 was 10% from secondary data. In this study 76.9% of the respondents had knowledge about typhoid fever. However, it was revealed that 58.6% males and 60.4% females were claimed to have suffered from typhoid fever. Among this, typhoid fever was higher in illiterate, elementary school and high school students than respondents with certificate, diploma and degree holders (p<0.001). The study found out that 93% of respondents who used pit latrine, 61.6% were suffered with typhoid fever. Also 60.3% of the respondents disposed the solid wastes on field that have direct proportional relation for prevalence of typhoid fever (X2=20.83, df=3, p<0.001). In case of water supply and prevalence of typhoid fever, largest percent (75%) who drunk from river water were suffered with typhoid fever. Additionally, the study found out that 54.9% patients had typhoid fever based on clinical examination and serological test results. This indicated that the risk factors were still continued and that there were no effective control measures in place. Therefore an understanding of factors that influence the occurrence of typhoid fever in Lalo Assabi District was important in the management of the typhoid fever and environmental sanitation by group minimizes the risk factors.

Published Date: 2020-01-23; Received Date: 2019-11-25