A prospective study on the microbial profile of pyrexia of unknown origin from inpatients of tertiary care hospital in North Karnataka

Abstract

Fever could have many causes including infective and non infective origin. PUO is a clinical syndrome that may result from much common etiology which was characterized by prolonged fever without the signs or symptoms indicative of a well defined disease processTo find the infectious causes of fever of unknown origin for 2–7 days duration were tested for Leptospirosis, Malaria, Rickettsial disease, Dengue virus, Chikungunya virus, UTI and blood borne infections and to find out antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the organisms isolated. This prospective study conducted in the Department of Microbiology, Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences (BRIMS) Bidar of North Karnataka. Patients with fever of unknown origin for 2–7 days duration were tested for Leptospirosis, Malaria, Rickettsial disease, Dengue virus, Chikungunya virus and urine & blood culture tests. Statistical software package SPSS version 22 was used to analyse the data. Chi-square test was applied wherever necessary and P-value of ˂0.05 was considered statistically significant.Among the 200 enrolled patients, 57 Dengue fever, 44 Enteric fever, 34 Chikungunya, 23 UTI, 21 Blood borne pathogens, 17 Leptospirosis, 14 Scrub-Typhus and 3 Malaria cases were confirmed. Mixed infection was seen in 26 cases. In our investigation, the current study revealed that the burden of Dengue, Enteric fever, Chikungunya, Leptospirosis, Scrub-Typhus & UTI disease is more in the current population. Laboratory based syndromic information of PUO can make clinicians cautious with respect to the potential pathogens in neighborhood. However, some of the cases always elude diagnosis, although the patients may respond to empirical therapy.