PREVALENCE OF INTESTINAL PARASITIC INFECTIONS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS WITH ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN SELECTED PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF HIRNA TOWN, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Intestinal protozoan and soil transmitted helminths infections are among the common leading causes of death worldwide. In developing countries intestinal protozoan and soil transmitted helminths infections are the major health problems where mostly pre-school and school age children are affected and the majority of these cases occur in sub-saharan African countries.The main objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence o f intestinal protozoan and soil transmitted helminths infections and their associations with anthropometric measurements of school children of Oda Belina and Ethiopia Tekdem Primary Schools of Hirna town. A school based cross-sectional study was conducted at Hirna town from April-June, 2017. A total of 384 study participants were selected from grade 1-8 children of the two schools using, stratified, random sampling method. The stool samples taken from the study participants were examined using direct wet mount, FormolEther Concentration and Zeihl-neelson methods. Out of the total 384 study participants, 45(11.7%) were infected with Intestinal protozoan and 67 (17.5%) were infected with soiltransmitted helminths. Of these, 11.2% and 12.3% were prevalence of protozoan parasites in males and females, respectively. while, the overall prevalence rate of soil-transmitted helminths parasites was 17.5%. Of these, 18.8% and 16.04% were for males and females, respectively. The prevalence of intestinal protozoan parasites was 7.6%, 3.7% and 0.5% for Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium species, respectively. On the other hand, the prevalence of intestinal helminth parasite infections was 6.8%, and 8.9%, 1.6%, for Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworms, Trichuris trichiura, respectively. Somerisk factors, such as family size and washing hands before meal and after toilet with soap were statistically associated with the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections (p 0.05). The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight for children of 6-9 years was 22(17.3%), 27 (21.3%) and 31(24.4%), respectively. But, for the10-18years age group, the prevalence of underweight was 37.0 %. Generally, the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was high among school-children of Hirna town. The local health sector should collaborate with schools to deliver health education to raise awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice of school children towards the transmission and prevention of intestin al parasitic infections through provision of community based health education, mass de-wo rming program, improvement of personal hygiene and environmental sanitation.