Prevalence of cestodes infection among school children of urban parts of Lower Dir district, Pakistan

Abstract

Tapeworms of zoonotic importance have been described as a leading public health problem. Current research was aim to assess the prevalence of tapeworms among 5-12years school children residing in district Lower Dir, Pakistan from January 2019-December 2019. The wet mount preparation in saline/iodine/methods were used for stool examination. Data was analyzed using appropriate descriptive, static methods. Of the 400 children studied 71.7% were infected with one or more species of intestinal parasites. Single infection of cestode species was found in 69 individuals with 17.2% prevalence and multiple parasitic infections were identified in 19.7% (n=79/400) individuals. The multiple infection were comprised as 10% (n=40) double, 6.75% (n=27) triple and 3% (n=12) quadruple. A total of 9 species of helminths and one species of protozoan infection. Among the helminths Ascaris lumbricoides was the most prevalent 33.1% (n=95), Taenia saginata 22.6% (n=65), hookworm 19.8% (n=57), Hymenolepis nana 18.8% (n=54), Enterobius vermicularis and Hymenolepis diminuta 1.39% (n=4each), Trichuris trichura 1.04% (n=3), Toxocara spp 0.69% (n=2) and Schistosoma japonicum 0.34% (n=1) were reported. One protozoan species was Cryptosporidium spp 0.69% (n=2) in current study. In case of A.lumbricoides, hookworm, E.vermicularis, T.trichura, T.saginata, H.nana and H.diminuta the male children of below 8 years of age were highly infected. Other infections are reported in the same prevalence with slight difference if any. We conclude that there is a need for mass scale campaigns to create awareness regarding health and hygiene in children and the need for development of effective poverty control programs because deworming alone is not adequate to control parasitic infections.

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).…”

Intestinal Parasitic Infections Among Pediatric Patients in a Metropolitan City of Bangladesh With Emphasis on Cryptosporidiosis

“…All concentrated samples were subjected to wet mount preparation by both saline and iodine preparation (saline wet mounts and iodine wet mount were arranged by discreetly blending a small volume of stool sample with a drop of physiological saline, methylene blue dye, and Lugol's iodine (diluted in 1: 5 distilled water), respectively, on a glass slide and employing a coverslip over the smear) [ 93 , 94 ] and staining by mZN (Figure 2 and Figure 3 ). A fecal smear was made from a concentrated stool sample on a clean, grease-free glass slide.…”

Por que doenças infecciosas e parasitárias estão entre as principais causas de morte no Brasil?

“…Tal questão solidifica o conhecimento de que apesar de as áreas rurais terem mais destaque em termos de incidência e prevalência de DIP, os aglomerados urbanos também são ambientes suscetíveis para a proliferação e disseminação parasitos e seus vetores/hospedeiros, visto que o crescimento acelerado e desenfreado dessas regiões gera ambientes insalubres e que não dispõem de atendimento em saúde adequado (McKenna, 2017;Dulce-Villarreal, 2020;Rahman et al, 2022).…”