Abstract
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) among school aged children (SAC) in Nigeria remains endemic, hence the need for regular surveillance to attract the attention of policy makers. This cross-sectional study investigated the current prevalence and factors associated with intestinal parasitic infections among school aged children in an urban slum of Lagos City, Nigeria.
METHODS: Single stool samples from 384 school aged children (188 boys and 196 girls) were examined by employing Merthiolate-iodine-formaldehyde concentration (MIFC) and Kato-Katz methods. Demographic characteristics and risk factors were obtained by questionnaires investigation.
RESULTS: The overall prevalence was 86.2% in school children, out of them 39.1% had polyparasitism. IPIs showed the highest to the lowest prevalence of 62% (238/384), 25% (97/384), 12.3% (47/384), 11.8% (45/384), 9.9% (38/384), 8.4% (32/384), 3.4% (13/384), and 0.5% (2/384) found in Ascaris lumbricoides, Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, Giardia duodenalis, Endolimax nana, Entamoeba coli, Trichuris trichiura, Blastocystis hominis, and hookworm infections, respectively. MIFC technique showed superiority to Kato-Katz technique in the detection of IPIs (p < 0.0001). Drinking untreated water was a significant risk factor for these school aged children in acquiring protozoan infections after multivariate adjustment (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.08-3.20, p = 0.02).
CONCLUSION: Intestinal parasitic infections are very severe among school aged children in the urban slums, thus regular mass de-worming programs, health education, and the provision of safe drinking water is recommended to combat IPIs among the school aged children.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 106-113 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2019 |
Keywords
- Journal Article
- Prevalence
- Slum
- Intestinal parasitic infections
- Schoolchildren
- Nigeria
- Risk factors
- Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic/epidemiology
- Parasitology
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Humans
- Risk Factors
- Feces/parasitology
- Male
- Nigeria/epidemiology
- Animals
- Adolescent
- Female
- Poverty Areas
- Child
- Parasites/classification
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology (medical)
- Infectious Diseases
- Immunology and Microbiology(all)
- Immunology and Allergy