Pinworm infection in school children of four districts of Malakand region, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Illnesses caused by human pinworm remains a pediatric health problem in developing nations including Pakistan. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis in school children of four districts in Malakand region, Pakistan. Four hundred faecal specimens were screened from May 2014 to July 2017 using normal saline and Lugol Iodine solution. Twenty three (5.75%) individuals were found infected with E. vermicularis. Five children (1.25%) were infected with only E. vermicularis and eighteen (4.5%) were mixed with other helminths. E. vermicularis 23 (5.75%), hookworm 11 (2.75%), Ascaris lumbricoides 5 (1.25%), Taenia saginata 2 (0.5%) and Trichuris trichuira 4 (1%) were detected. Age wise 5-8 years were more parasitized followed by 13-15 and 9-12 years of age (0.0296, P<0.05). Male children were highly (0.06700, P<0.05) infected than female. Children in Malakand district were found more infected followed by Dir Upper, similar infection rate was noted in children of districts Lower Dir and Swat (0.0192, P<0.05). Children in primary level were highly (0.0013, P<0.05) infected than those of middle and high levels. Enterobiosis is still the most common parasitic diseases in children. Studies on enterobiosis should be conducted time by time to recognize the hazardous of such parasitic infection in remote areas of the country.

Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitosis in Guinea: Systematic Review of the Literature and Meta-Analysis

“…Behavioral and social practices in children and their weak immune status, especially in under five, may account for the high frequency of intestinal parasitic infections [ 2 , 3 , 8 ]. With respect to pinworm prevalence, this was very low in children, in contrast with studies reporting this parasite as one of the most important intestinal pathogens in this group [ 100 ]. This could be explained by the fact that the identification of pinworms was performed only by microscopic examination of feces and not by the Scotch tape test, which is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of E. vermicularis [ 101 ].…”

“…Furthermore, concerning diagnostic tests, microscopic examination of fresh stools was the most commonly used method. In particular, techniques more adequate for the diagnosis of E. vermicularis and S. stercoralis , such as the Scotch tape test [ 100 ] and the Baermann [ 108 ], respectively, were not performed. Then, it is possible that some parasites were not routinely detected in clinical laboratories.…”

New record of parasitic infection among school children of Lower Dir Pakistan

“…Various studies have been published on intestinal parasites infecting different sectors of human population in the region as Khan et al ( , 2012Khan et al ( , 2014Khan et al ( , 2016Khan et al ( , 2017aKhan et al ( , b, 2018aKhan et al ( , b, 2019a, Arshad et al (2019), Khan and Khan (2015), Noor un Nisa et al ( 2011), Khan et al (2020), Iqbal et al (2021), Khan et al (2022a), Khan et al (2022b), Khan et al (2022c), Ulhaq et al (2022) and Rahman et al (2022).…”