Abstract
BackgroundIntestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) pose significant public health challenges in school children in developing countries. The aim of this study is to determine prevalence of intestinal parasites among elementary school children in Mizan-Aman town, southwest Ethiopia.MethodsInstitution-based cross-sectional study involving 460 elementary school children in Mizan-Aman Town was conducted from May to June 2013. The school children were selected using multistage sampling technique. Data on demography and predisposing factors of IPIs were collected using pretested questionnaire. Moreover, single stool specimen was examined microscopically after wet mount and formol-ether sedimentation concentration procedures. Infection intensity of Schistosoma mansoni and soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) was estimated using Kato-Katz egg counting method.ResultsAge of the children ranged from 5 to 17 years. Overall, 76.7 % (95%CI: 72.8–80.6) of the children harbored at least one species of intestinal parasite. Eight species of intestinal parasites were detected with S. mansoni (44.8 %) and Ascaris lumbricoides (28.7 %) being predominant. Helminths and pathogenic intestinal protozoa were detected in 73.9 and 7.8 % of the children, respectively. After adjusting for other variables, age between 5 and 9 years (AOR, 2.6, 95%CI, 1.552–4.298), male gender (AOR, 2.1, 95%CI, 1.222–3.526), attending public school (AOR, 0.1, 95%CI, 0.060–0.256), using river/well water (AOR, 2.4, 95%CI, 0.912–6.191), irregular washing of hands before meal (AOR, 0.5, 95%CI, 0.254–0.865), consuming street food (AOR, 2.3, 95%CI, 1.341–3.813) and raw vegetables (AOR, 2.7, 95%CI, 1.594–4.540) were significantly associated with IPIs in the study participants.ConclusionPrevalence of intestinal parasites among the school children was high. Deworming of the school children and continuous follow up is required.
Highlights
Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) pose significant public health challenges in school children in developing countries
Apart from the direct health impacts, malaria-helminth co-infections may increase severity of malarial anemia resulting in gametocyte carriage, perhaps affecting transmission dynamics of malaria in endemic areas [8]
Mizan-Aman Town is found in Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region of Ethiopia (Fig. 1)
Summary
Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) pose significant public health challenges in school children in developing countries. Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) are the most common infections in developing countries, where sanitary facilities are scarce. Mortality due to these infections is rare, the morbidity and detrimental effects on socio-economic development resulting from these infections is enormous [3,4,5,6,7]. Deworming of helminth infected children is required to reduce the nutritional deficit resulting from these infections [9, 10]. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends mass school-based deworming of schoolage children twice a year if prevalence of the STHs ≥ 50 %, and once every year if the prevalence is ≥ 20 % and less than 50 % [11]
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