Authors

Discussion

Nigeria is plagued with the tetrad burden of HIV, TB, Malaria and T2DM. While the management of T2DM is compromised by poor glycemic control , and evidence exist to support the interactions of diabetes with HIV and TB, information on diabetes- malaria co-infection is currently lacking in the country. In this cross-sectional study , a total of 210 stable T2DM patients ( mean age, 54.5y; 59.2 males) under conventional glycemic control at six private health facilities in Alimosho L.G.A, Lagos were consecutively enrolled between May- July, 2015. A pre- tested semi structured questionnaire was used to obtained socio-demographic and clinical profiles of the patients. Under a fasting state, blood glucose and PCV were measured from venous blood using spectrophotometric and capillary- microhaematocrit methods. Malaria infection was diagnosed by RDT, Light microscopy, and PCR. Poor glycemic control was defined as FBG>130mg/dl and anaemia as PCV<36%. Data were analysed using SPSS version 17.0. Of the 210 T2DM patients enrolled, prevalence of poor glycemic control was 66.7%, anaemia was 17.6%( in whom 70% had asymptomatic malaria), malaria was 17.6%, 8.1%,2.4% by PCR, Microscopy, and RDT respectively. With the pooling of parasite density and PCV data in the T2DM patients with good and poor glycemic control, significant inverse correlation (r = -0.65, < 0.05) was found between parasite density and PCV. Findings from this study indicate that asymptomatic falciparum malaria infection is a burden among T2DM patients in the study area with potential to induce anaemia and poor glycemic control.