ArticleThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene2015
Etiology of pediatric fever in western Kenya: a case-control study of falciparum malaria, respiratory viruses, and streptococcal pharyngitis.
Article in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the aetiological agents of non-malarial febrile illnesses in Africa.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Using nanopore metagenomics to characterize pathogens in febrile patients from a highland of Western Kenya.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Risk factors associated with dengue and chikungunya seroprevalence and seroconversion among urban populations in western and coastal Kenya.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Antimalarial drug prescriptions and clinical outcomes of febrile children in Arba Minch City, South Ethiopia.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Self-Reported Symptoms at Last Febrile Illness as a Predictor of Treatment-Seeking in Western Kenya: A Cross-Sectional Study.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Article
- Article
- Differences in diagnosis, management, and outcomes of acute febrile illness by health facility level in southern Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Clinical management and outcomes of acute febrile illness in children attending a tertiary hospital in southern Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Aetiology of acute febrile illness among children attending a tertiary hospital in southern Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Metagenomic next-generation sequencing of samples from pediatric febrile illness in Tororo, Uganda.PloS one · 2019Article
- Acute Flavivirus and Alphavirus Infections among Children in Two Different Areas of Kenya, 2015.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2019Article
- The epidemiology of febrile illness in sub-Saharan Africa: implications for diagnosis and management.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2018Review
- Study on causes of fever in primary healthcare center uncovers pathogens of public health concern in Madagascar.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- Treatable causes of fever among children under five years in a seasonal malaria transmission area in Burkina Faso.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2018Article
- True malaria prevalence in children under five: Bayesian estimation using data of malaria household surveys from three sub-Saharan countries.Malaria journal · 2018Article
- Dynamic malaria hotspots in an open cohort in western Kenya.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Principles, practices and knowledge of clinicians when assessing febrile children: a qualitative study in Kenya.Malaria journal · 2017Article
- Contribution of urinary tract infection to the burden of febrile illnesses in young children in rural Kenya.PloS one · 2017Article
- Co-circulation of Plasmodium and Bacterial DNAs in Blood of Febrile and Afebrile Children from Urban and Rural Areas in Gabon.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In Kenya, more than 10 million episodes of acute febrile illness are treated annually among children under 5 years. Most are clinically managed as malaria without parasitological confirmation. There is an unmet need to describe pathogen-specific etiologies of fever. We enrolled 370 febrile children and 184 healthy controls. We report demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with Plasmodium falciparum, group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis, and respiratory viruses (influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus [RSV], parainfluenza [PIV] types 1-3, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus [hMPV]), as well as those with undifferentiated fever. Of febrile children, 79.7% were treated for malaria. However, P. falciparum was detected infrequently in both cases and controls (14/268 [5.2%] versus 3/133 [2.3%], P = 0.165), whereas 41% (117/282) of febrile children had a respiratory viral infection, compared with 24.8% (29/117) of controls (P = 0.002). Only 9/515 (1.7%) children had streptococcal infection. Of febrile children, 22/269 (8.2%) were infected with > 1 pathogen, and 102/275 (37.1%) had fevers of unknown etiology. Respiratory viruses were common in both groups, but only influenza or parainfluenza was more likely to be associated with symptomatic disease (attributable fraction [AF] 67.5% and 59%, respectively). Malaria was overdiagnosed and overtreated. Few children presented to the hospital with GAS pharyngitis. An enhanced understanding of carriage of common pathogens, improved diagnostic capacity, and better-informed clinical algorithms for febrile illness are needed.
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