Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitic Infections among Schoolchildren of Kapan VDC, Kathmandu

Abstract

The present study investigated the intestinal parasitic infections in schoolchildren of Kapan VDC, Kathmandu, Nepal. A total of 330 schoolchildren were included in this study. Stool samples collected in clean, dry, screw-capped plastic containers were examined by formal-ether sedimentation technique. A total of 134 samples (40.6%) were positive for some kind of intestinal parasites. The percentage of monoparasitism (67.9%) were higher than multiparasitism (32.1%). Giardia lamblia (17.8%) and Trichuris trichiura (3.6%) were the commonest protozoa and helminthes respectively. Girls were marginally more infected (41.4%) than boys (39.8%) (p>0.05). Children <5 years were more infected (80.0%) than 5-10 years (36.0%) (p=0.001). Prevalence of parasitic infection rate was higher in family size >5 (41.5%) than ≤5 (40.1%) (p=0.82). In ethnic wise distribution, incidence rate of parasites was higher in Dalits (71.4%) and the least in Indo-Aryans (33.1%) (p<0.05). Children drinking water from groundwater source had marginally lower prevalence rate (31.3%) than who used tap water (58.4%) (p<0.001). The higher infection rate (51.3%) was observed in children belonging to labour family and the least in the business family (33.3%) (p=0.032). The children who had taken anti-parasitic drug within past 6 months had lower prevalence rate (25%) than those who had not taken drugs (44.4%) (p=0.005).

Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 7(1): 22-26