Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Research



Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Intestinal Parasitic Infection among Under five Children in University of Gondar Hospital, Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia

Yetemwork Aleka, Seife G/egziabher, Workineh Tamir, Meseret Birhane, Agersew Alemu*.




Abstract

Background: Intestinal parasitic infection is a serious health problem in developing countries mainly in children, whichleads to child mortality and morbidity. Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated risk factors of intestinal para- sitic infection among underfive children in UoG Hospital.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2015 to June 2015, a total of 277 children were selected by using systematic random sampling technique. Direct wet mount and formol-ether concentration technique was used for identification of IP; also, an interview-based questioner was prepared to assess the socio-demographic status (of parents and children) and associated risk factors of those under five children. Re- sult: A total of 277 children [(148 (53.4%) females and 129 (46.6%) males] aged 1 year to 5 years was examined for intestinal parasitic infections. The overall prevalence of this study was 25 (9.02%) when examined by wet mount and48 (17.3%) when examined by formol-ether concentration technique. Five (1.8 %) children were infected by multiple parasites in concentra- tion technique. Both intestinal helminthes (84%, 81.1%) and protozoan parasites (16%, 18.9%) were detected in microscopic examination with wet mount and formol-ether concentration techniques respectively. Eight species of intestinal parasites were identified. Of those, the predominant were Ascaris lumbricoides (52%, 35.8%), Hymenolepis nana (20%, 24.5%) and cyst of Giardia lamblia (12%, 9.4%) when examined by wet mount and formol-ether concentration techniques respectively. The least prevalent were Strongyloides stercoralis (1.9%). There was statistically observed association for the prevalence of IP with age, hand washing habit of parents and shortening of fingernails habit of parents. Conclusion: The result of this study indicated that helminthic infection is more predominant than protozoan infection. Children who come from parents who had no hand wash- ing habit and had no shortening fingernails habit were more affected by IP; therefore, Personal hygiene of parents of underfive children must be improved.

Key words: Intestinal parasitic infection, associated risk factors, under five children.






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.