Abstract
During the period March 2001 and August 2002, febrile children aged less than 12 years who had negative blood film for malaria were selected as cases. A matched afebrile admissions were selected as controls; 108(27%) out of 400 cases and 38(19%) out of 200 controls were studied. Viral infection was detected in 64.4% of malaria negative patients (P <0.05). The incidence of rubella, Influenza A virus, CMV was 18.5%, 15.8% and 13%, respectively; while that of measles, Adenoviruses and Influenza B virus was 8.3%, 11.1% and 11.1%, respectively. The incidence of parainfluenza virus, EBV, RSV was 6.5%, 4.6% and 1.9%, respectively. Serological titers of cases compared to controls were insignificant except for Influenza A virus which occurred more in afebrile patients (P < 0.05) and it was the most frequent virus encountered in association with other viruses. Mixed viral infections occurred in 21(19.4%) patients. Viral infection was implicated in 30.5% and 15.1% of cases of respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis, respectively. About 10% and 13.3% of infants less than three months were found to have significant IgM titers of Rubella & CMV respectively. This raises the possibility of congenital (maternal transmitted) infection. The study revealed that no difference in the incidence of viral infection between febrile and afebrile children (p= 0.3423) and that the clinical presentation of certain viral infections e.g. rubella, influenza etc is not different from that reported in literature, mostly presenting with symptomatology of respiratory infections.