Assessing the Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitic Infections (IPIs) Among the Children of Geidam Central Primary School Yobe State, Nigeria

Background: : Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) is one of the preventable and avoidable public health problems that affect a significant portion of school-aged children and cause a lot of predominant physical and intellectual health challenges. Despite the significant public health importance attached to IPIs, but they remain neglected and this neglect happens due to the fact that most affected people belonging to the poorest communities who have little political voice and this coupled with the nature of the infection, as IPIs do not cause fearsome outbreaks to call emergency public response.

Aims: This research aimed at assessing the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) among the children of Geidam Central primary school Yobe state, Nigeria.

Study Design: A cross-sectional research method was used.

Place and Duration of Study: Laboratory department, Yobe State Specialist Hospital (YSSH) Geidam, and the study was conducted within 3 months.

Methodology: A total number of 36 children were randomly collected from primary 1-6 children, and six (6) children were selected from each class. The stool samples were taken to YSSH, Geidam for microscopic examination. The samples were fixed in formalin for 30 minutes and then about 5 grams of the stool were mix thoroughly in the 10% formalin & filtered. The centrifuge was used to read for 2 minutes at 2500 RPM and then discarded the supernatant and leave 1.5 mL of the sediment which eventually formed 4 layers, then 3 layers were decanted carefully and the sediments was left in the test tube and make the smears in saline and iodine wet preparation and then presence of ova or cyst of IPIs were examined under the aid of microscope. The Data were analyzed using SPSS and presented in tables and figures while showing infection’s frequency and percentage.

Results: Out of the 36 children that were examined for the prevalence of IPIs in Geidam central primary school, 19 (52.65%) children were infected with different sorts of IPIs.The identified IPIs were A. lumbricoides, Hookworm, Giardia, S. stercoralis, T. trichiura, and Enterobius vermicularis (16.63%, 13.86%, 5.54%, 8.31%, 5.54%, and 2.77%). Of the 36 selected children, males maintain a high prevalence of IPIs with a total percentage of 36.11% and females hold a lower prevalence of infection (16.66%). Regarding the age group, the highest prevalence shown in children aged 10-12 years (class 4-6) with prevalence parentage of (33.33%), while their counterparts aged 6-9 years hold a lower prevalence with (19.44%) percentage. Concerning the prevalence according class-, class 1 has 5.5%, class2 has 8.33%, class3 also has 5.55%, in contrast higher prevalence were detected in class 4, class 5 and class6 with percentage of (13.88%,11.11%, and 8.33%), respectively.

Conclusions: This research study has established that there is a prevalence of IPIs among children of Geidam central primary school. This may have a connection with different potential risk factors such as walking barefoot, poor personal hygiene, inadequate environmental sanitation, lack of portable drinking water, open defection, improper latrine utilization and other several factors.