Mono-parasite infection versus co-infections in Tanzania: the need to revise our research focus

Parasitic infectious agents in endemic African countries including Tanzania rarely occurs in isolation and co-infections within a single host in populations are norms rather than exceptions (Brooker et al., 2007; Mazigo et al., 2010a; Mboera et al., 2011). Coinfection refers to a situation in which an individual harbours two or more infections from different species simultaneously, where as mono-infection refers to a situation in which an individual harbours only one infection from a single species (Brooker et al., 2007). Several factors determines the wide geographical distributions of helminth and protozoan parasites and they include climate, environment, socio-economic status, human behaviour and host-specific factors such as genetics, host physiology, host immunological status and population dynamics (Mwangi et al., 2007).