Prevalence of pathogenic intestinal parasites among Saudi rural schoolchildren

Abstract

A national survey was carried out in 1991 to assess the prevalence of pathogenic intestinal parasites in rural Saudi Arabian schoolchildren aged 6–18 years. Nine thousand eight hundred and eighty-one children underwent a clinical evaluation and stool specimens were examined, using direct microscopy. Intestinal pathogenic parasites were found in 2, 233 (22.6%) children. The major parasites isolated were Giardia lamblia (13.5%), Schistosoma mansoni (3.8%), Entamoeba histolytica (2.5%), Hymenolepis nana (2.5%), Ascaris lumbricoides (2.0%) and Entrobius vermicularis (1.0%). Prevalence of intestinal parasites was significantly associated with the child's age, sex, father's educational level, non-public water supply and inadequate latrine type. The highest risk group was children 6–8 years old, whose father were illiterate and had no latrine.