Abstract
BackgroundIn Ethiopia, like other developing countries, intestinal parasitic infections are the major public health problems affecting millions annually. Overcrowding and poor living conditions are the major risk factors. Prison inmates are among the most vulnerable groups to intestinal parasitic infections. However, there is scarcity of epidemiological data regarding intestinal parasites among prison inmates in Ethiopia, notably in Tigrai. Thus, we aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites and identify the associated factors among inmates of Mekelle prison, Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia.MethodsA cross sectional study involving 291 inmates was conducted from February to June 2017 among inmates of Mekelle prison. After systematically selecting subjects, stool specimens were examined using direct wet mount and formol-ether concentration techniques. We used SPSS version 21 for data analysis. We considered p-value less than 0.05 significant at 95% confidence level.ResultsOf the 291 inmates enrolled in the study, 124 (42.6%) harbored one or more intestinal parasites. The protozoan Entamoeba histolytica/dispar/moshkovskii was the predominant parasite accounted for 68 (23.3%) of the infections followed by Giardia lamblia (10.3%) and Entamoeba coli (8.2%). Fourteen (4.8%) participants were co-infected with different parasite species. The co-infections of Entamoeba histolytica/dispar/moshkovskii and Giardia lamblia were detected among 3.1% of the participants. In bivariate analysis, hand fingernail status (COR 1.86, 95% CI, 1.08–3.20) and duration of stay in prison (COR 2.23, 95% CI 1.31–3.79) were statistically associated with intestinal parasite infections. In multivariable regression, inmates who stayed in the prison for one year or less were more likely to harbor intestinal parasitic infections (p = 0.013) than those who stayed longer. No other single predictor variable was found to be significantly associated with intestinal parasitic infections.ConclusionsThe result of this study showed that intestinal parasites are significant health problems among inmates of Mekelle prison.
Highlights
In Ethiopia, like other developing countries, intestinal parasitic infections are the major public health problems affecting millions annually
Male participants were more affected (41.2%) than females (1.4%). Those participants who stayed in the prison for more than 1 year had high proportion of intestinal parasitic infections (27.5%) compared to those who stayed for 1 year or less (15.1%)
No other single predictor variable was found to be significantly associated with intestinal parasitic infections among the participants (Table 3)
Summary
In Ethiopia, like other developing countries, intestinal parasitic infections are the major public health problems affecting millions annually. Intestinal parasitic infections contribute to high global health burden causing over 3.5 billion infections as well as clinical morbidity of 450 million, the majority being vulnerable groups in developing countries [1]. STHs are responsible for the rate of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) of approximately 39 million, indicating a substantial economic burden of these infections. Among these parasites, Ascaris lumbricoides infects over a billion people while Trichuris trichiura and hookworms infect over 795 million and 740 million people worldwide, respectively [2]. Entamoeba histolytica causes hundreds of millions of infections each year; approximately 50 million of these suffer from severe morbidity resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths each year [4]
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