ABSTRACT
Malaria and typhoid fever are both endemic in the tropics and pregnant women constitute one of the high risk groups. The study on prevalence of Plasmodium and Salmonella infections among pregnant women in Aba, Abia State was carried out in Aba between June and July, 2016. Blood samples from 200 volunteered pregnant women who came for antenatal clinic with clinical signs in three selected health institution were collected and analyzed at microbiology laboratory, Abia State Polytechnic Aba. Plasmodium infection was determined by the microscopical examination of blood film using Giemsa stained slide while Salmonella infection was determined using chromatest kits which was also confirmed by blood culture. Out of two hundred (200) samples examined, 112(56.00%) were infected with Plasmodium species while 44(22.00%) were infected with Salmonella species, 36(18.00%) were positive for both Plasmodium and Salmonella species. Also out of 44(22.00%) blood samples positive for widal test, 24(54.55%) were positive for Salmonella typhi when cultured. This study revealed that Plasmodium infection was complicated by Salmonella infection in pregnancy in at least (56.00%) of cases and this has a far reaching effect on adverse pregnancy outcome.
