Background: Intestinal parasitic infections are one of the common health problems. It is estimated that about 3.5 billion people worldwide are affected, and that 450 million are ill as a result of these infections, the majority of sufferers are children. Two main types of intestinal parasites are helminthes and protozoa. So the purpose of this study was to detect the prevalence of intestinal parasites in primary school children and its related risk factors beside the impact of intestinal parasites on general health and children nutritional status.
Patient: A total number of randomized 200 childrens from 6-11 years old were selected from Farskour City; Dameitta Governorate from December 2010 to May 2011 from Bany Farskour primary school at Farskour City. All childrens were subjects to the following: detailed history, thorough clinical examination, anthropometric measurements, complete blood count, microscopic stool analysis, and serodiagnosis of schistosomiasis by indirect haemagglutination test. Results: The results of present study were reveled that the prevalence of infection regardless its type was 55%. The intestinal parasites among the 200 children's included in this study 12(6%) were infected with Ascaris only, 18 (9%) were infected with Entameaba trophozoite only, 17 (8.5%) were infected with Giardia, 41(20.5%) were infected with Oxyuris, 7(3.5%) were infected with Bilharziasis and 20(10%) have mixed infections. As regard sociodemographic data, we found that intestinal parasites were associated with low social class and poor mother education, while there was no significant difference regarding age and sex. Regarding nutritional state, wasted students represent 19.0% and stunted students represent 1.5% while there were no wasted and stunted students and there was significant increase of wasted students in infected in comparison to non-infected students. Decresed hemoglobin level and elevated esinophilic count is observed among infected children with statistically significant difference.
Conclusion: Intestinal parasitic infection is an important public health problem in children between 6-11years living in Farskour City, Damietta Governorate with high Prevalence rate (55.0%). The most common type of parasitic infection was Oxyuris and the least one was Ancylstoma. Intestinal parasites were more frequent among low social classand poor maternal education. Intestinal parasitic infestations were associated with the presence of anemia and might be one of the reasons of anemia in these studied students. Recommendations:More interest should be paid about the early detection and treatment of children who was carrier or infected with parasite, family education about the self-hygienic control and the effect of environmental factors in transmission of diseases and improving the system of sewage disposal and water supply with health promotion campaigns and regular follow up is needed to ensure the efficacy of management of a new infection. Large scaled survey are recommended to include more ages for discovering the epidemiological distribution of such parasites in Damietta governorate and elucidate risk factors for their prevalence.