Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites in Children Attendingopd of Kanti Children Hospital, Kathmandu

Abstract

Present study was carried out to find out the prevalence of intestinal parasites inchildren who attended the Kanti Children Hospital in the age group 0-15 years. Atotal of 300 stool samples were screened and examined by wet mount and Iodinestained method. Among them 109 (36.3%) were found to be infected with one ormore intestinal parasites. The intestinal parasites observed during the study wereEntamoeba67 (22.3%),Giardia33(11.0%),Ascaris01 (0.33%),Taenia01 (0.33%),Hymenolepis01 (0.33%), Hookworm 01 (0.33%) andTrichuris01 (0.33%). Multipleinfections were observed in 5 (1.66%) of the children with a maximum of two species. The infection of helminth parasites was found very low i.e. 4(1.33%) than protozoanparasites 100 (33.3%) that may be because of antihelminthic programs held bygovernment each year. The higest prevalence rate (72.0%) was found in the age group12-15 years and the lowest prevalence rate (32.5%) was found in the age group 0-3years. However, statistically no significant difference was found in infection rateamong different age groups of children (χ²= 22.31, df=4, P>0.05). In case of sexwiseprevalence, the infection rate was slightly higher among males (60.6%) than females(39.4%). Difference in the prevalence of intestinal parasites in the two sexes wasfound to be insignificant (χ² = 4.48, df=1, P>0.05). According to source of drinking water the highest rate (62.38%) of infection wasfound in tap water consuming children and the lowest rate (3.67%) in Jar waterconsuming children. Again, infection rate (43.9%) is higher in children who havedeveloped the soil eating habit than in children having no soil eating habit i.e.(32.7%). But there was no significant difference (χ² = 4.48, df=1, P>0.05) inprevalence of intestinal parasites with soil eating habit of children. The problemcaused by intestinal parasites are due to lack of serious and profound sanitaryeducation policy. The eradication of these parasites requires an improvement in thesocioeconomic conditions, basic sanitation and sanitary education, proper hygiene andsafe drinking water.