Rift Valley fever among febrile patients at New Halfa hospital, eastern Sudan

To investigate the seroprevalence and risk factors for seropostive to RVFV IgG among febrile patients.All febrile patients presented to New Halfa hospital in eastern Sudan during September through November 2007 were investigated to identify the cause of their fever including malaria and RFV.Out of 290 feverish patients presented to the hospital, malaria was diagnosis in 94 individuals. Fevers of unknown origin were diagnosed in 149 patients. Seropostive to RVFV IgG was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 122 (81.8%) of the sera from these 149 patients with fever of unknown origin. While socio-demographic characteristics (age, Job, education and residency) were not associated with seropostive to RVFV IgG, male (OR = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.0-7.6; P = 0.04) were at three times higher risk for seropostive to RVFV IgG.There was a high seropostive to RVFV IgG in this setting, more research is needed perhaps using other methods like PCR and IGM.The Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) of the family Bunyaviridae is a cause of zoonotic viral disease [1]. Since the first isolation of the virus in1930s, there have been several epizootics outbreaks in tropic mainly in Africa including Sudan, which is the largest country in Africa [2,3]. RVFV Infection in humans can be acquired through mosquito bites, through contact with infected animals and vertical transmission has been reported [4]. RVF can present as uncomplicated acute febrile illness, however severe complications, such as hemorrhagic disease, meningoencephalitis, renal failure and blindness have been reported [2,5,6]. Generally, it has been estimated that only approximately 1%-2% of infections result in fatal hemorrhagic fever [7]. It has been reported that significant high-prevalence clusters of RVF encompassed areas that had experienced previous epidemics of RVF [8].RVF and other arthropod-borne pathogens as the cause of an outbreak of febrile illnesses were reported previously, following previous flooding in the differ