Occult Filaria Infection: Could it be a Cause of Chronic Dry Cough?

Authors

  • Abdul Wadud Chowdhury Department of Cardiology, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hospital, Dhaka
  • Amitav Saha National Institute of Chest Diseases and Hospital, Dhaka
  • Ziaur Rahman Chowdhury Department of Hepatology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka
  • Abu Sadique Abdullah Department of Medicine, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3329/jom.v10i1.1994

Keywords:

Filaria infection

Abstract

Background: Management of chronic dry cough is a challenging problem for physicians. A significant proportion of patients remain undiagnosed and not cured for a long period. So this study was undertaken to identify etiology of chronic dry cough.
Methods: A prospective study was done in a private center, Dhaka during the period of April 2007-February, 2008 among 80 patients who were suffering from chronic dry cough for more than three months.
Results: 80 patients of chronic dry cough were prospectively studied on the basis of history, clinical examination and investigation reports. Among them, (41, 51.25%) were diagnosed as having usual causes of dry cough like cough variant asthma (21, 26.25%), heart Failure (10, 12.5%), sinusitis/post nasal drip (4.5%), gastro esophageal reflux disease (2, 2.5%) and drug- ACE inhibitor (4,5%). This group of patients improved after treatment of their primary cause except 6 (7.5%), who showed no improvement. These patients and the rest 39 (48.75%) patients did not have any discernible cause of chronic cough. They were evaluated by CFT for filaria. Among them, 20 cases (25%) showed moderate to strongly positive result. This CFT filaria positive group was treated with a combination of ivermectin and albendazole. Patients were followed up for up to four months. Result showed cough was totally absent in 80% treated patients with the rest 20% showing significant improvement.
Conclusion: This study advocates that, significant proportion of chronic dry cough patients were actually suffering from occult filaria and they responded well to treatment with drugsivermectin and albendazole combination.  

doi:10.3329/jom.v10i1.1994

J Medicine 2009; 10: 3-6

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
444
PDF
177

Downloads

How to Cite

Chowdhury, A. W., Saha, A., Chowdhury, Z. R., & Abdullah, A. S. (2009). Occult Filaria Infection: Could it be a Cause of Chronic Dry Cough?. Journal of Medicine, 10(1), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.3329/jom.v10i1.1994

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2009)

Section

Original Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).