PREVALENCE AND INTENSITY OF HUMAN INTESTINAL PARASITES IN FECTIONS AND ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS AMONG CHILDREN IN NICOLAS BAM PRIMARY SCHOOL, HARARI REGION EASTERN ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

inadequate personal hygiene. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence, intensity and associated risk factors of human intestinal parasitic infections of school children of Nicolas Bam Primary School,Harari Region, Eastern Ethiopia. In this crossectional descriptive study direct wet mount method, formol ether concentration technique and Kato Katz technique were employed to examine 403 stool samples. In addition, questionnaire survey was carried out to obtain information about the risk factors for intestinal parasitic infections. The data were entered and analyzed by SPSS version 20 statistical package software. From 403 school children who subjected stool examination, 121 of them had at least one parasite. Therefore the overall prevalence of human Intestinal parasitic infections were 30%. The dominant parasite species was Entamoeba histolytica (23.3%), which followed by Giardia lamblia (12.9%). The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides were (6.2%), Hookworms, (5.5%), Tape Worms (3.5%), Trichuris trichura (3.7%) and the species of Cryptosporidium was (2.5%).The intensity of human intestinal parasitic Helminthes infections as it has been measured by geometric mean of egg per gram of stool, was found to be moderate. Factors like family size of the students, source of drinking water, availability of latrine and personal hygiene were significantly associated with human intestinal parasitic infections (P<0.05). Based on these results, it can be concluded that human intestinal parasitic infections were one of major problems of school children in the study areas. Thus, the local health sector should collaborate with community health program to provide health education to increase the knowledge, attitude and practice of school children about human intestinal parasitic infectioprevention and control methods. ns, their transmission mechanisms, and