Prevalence of Yellow fever virus infection and associated factors among acute febrile patients in Arbaminch districts, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract Yellow fever is a rapidly emerging arthropod-borne viral infection, which causes considerable illness and death worldwide. However, little is known regarding the epidemiology of yellow fever virus infection in Ethiopia where mosquito-borne diseases like malaria are common. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of yellow fever virus infection and its associated factors among febrile illness in Arbaminch districts in Southern Ethiopia. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a consecutive group of 529 acute febrile patients between May to August 2016. Data on socio-demographic, environmental and clinical signs and symptoms were collected using structured questionnaires. Serum was used to detect anti-yellow fever virus IgG and/or IgM using indirect Immunofluorescent assay (Euro immune Biochip mosaics, Lübeck, Germany). A logistic regression analysis was done using SPSS V-20 (IBM Corp, 2012). P-value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Of the tested 529 serum samples 14.9% and 7.2% were positive for anti-yellow fever IgG and IgM respectively. Among IgG positive patients, males accounted for 15.04% and female 14.85%. Yellow fever exposure was more in the younger age group; participants age less than 20 years (26.80%), followed by those in the age group above 60 years (26.47%). Further, the prevalence of yellow fever exposure among urban residents was 37.14%. Of the assessed risk factors, only constitutional symptoms were significantly associated with the Yellow fever virus (AOR = 0.28, 95% CI 0.30- 0.72.P < 0.011). The laboratory finding of this study shows, the level of exposure to yellow fever among febrile cases is relatively high; however, clinical diagnosis of febrile patients is a common practice in the study area. Therefore, Domestication and routine performance of yellow fever virus differential diagnosis will help to address the phenomenon of the virus.