Waheed Ullah, Akram Shah,
Qaiser Jamal, Sana Ullah, Ibrar
Muhammad, and Hamid Ullah, from the institute of Pakistan. wrote a
Research article about, Intestinal Parasites Among Schoolchildren in Upper Dir,
Pakistan. Entitled, Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites among school children in
District Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. This research paper published
by the International Journal of Biosciences | IJB. an open access scholarly
research journal Biosciences. under the affiliation of the International
Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary
research journal publisher.
Abstract
This study was
undertaken to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection among
school going children across District Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. A
total of 222 stool specimens (156 from boys and 66 from girls) were taken from
participants of age 4-15 years. Among 222 inhabitants 81 were included from
urban and 141 from rural areas. Overall prevalence of parasitic infection was
found to be (73.87%). A total of 10 different species (7 helminthes and 3
protozoans) were detected. The parasites encountered were Ascaris lumbricoides
(54.50%), Taenia saginata (16.22%), Hymenolepis nana (10.81%) and Taxocara species
(10.36%), Trichuris trichiura (6.76%), Entamoeba coli (5.41%), Giardia lamblia
(2.25%), Entamoeba histolytica (1.3%), Enterobius vermicularis (1.3%) and
hookworms (0.45%). Ascaris was more frequent (75.18%) in rural community, while
Taenia saginata (35.80%), Hymenolepis nana (25.93%) and Taxocara species
(28.40%) were more prevalent among urban population.
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Introduction
Parasites are organisms
that depend upon other organisms for food and abode. Approximately most of the
humans carry several different kinds of parasites. Parasites in often cases are
restricted to digestive tract especially intestine. Intestinal parasites
include both helminthes such as tape worm and flukes worms as well as protozoa
like Giardia, Cryptosporidium and Entameoba sp. Intestinal infections are among
the most common infections worldwide and so as in Pakistan. It is estimated
that presently, due to parasitic infection, approximately 3.5 billion people
are affected while 450 million are ill, majority of them being children (Jombo
et al., 2010).
Intestinal parasites
are responsible for causing some of the major diseases throughout the world
such as amoebiasis, giardiasis, ascariasis, hookworm infection and
trichuriasis. These diseases are closely related to the low socioeconomic
status, poor sanitation, inadequate medical care and absence of safe drinking
water supplies (Abu-Madi et al., 2008). Some of these diseases are often
resulting in mortality, specifically in under develop or less develop countries
of tropic and sub-tropic.
In Pakistan parasitic
infection is one of the main causes of diarrhea. It affects about 170 to 400
million middle aged children annually. The immediate effects of helminthiasis
include anemia and impaired cognition (NHSR Pakistan, 1998). The most common
intestinal parasites in Pakistan are helminthes like Ascaris lumbricoides,
Hymenolepis nana, Trichuris trichiura and Entrobius vermicularis and common
protozoans including Entamoeba species and Giardia lamblia (Fung and
Cairncross, 2009).
Owing to the severity
of the issue research have been conducted on intestinal parasites in different
parts of the world. Tasawar et al. (2010), Ensink et al. (2005), Qureshi et al.
(1999) and Pal & Subhani (1989) carried out studies on intestinal parasites
in different areas of the Pakistan. Sharif et al., (2010), Jombo et al. (2010),
Siwila et al. (2010), Pourrut et al. (2010), Steinmann et al. (2010),
Abdelmoneim et al. (2010), Hsieh et al. (2010), Eligial et al. (2010), Gamboa
et al. (2011), Fung and Cairncross (2009), Abu-Madi et al. (2008), Kinfu and
Erko (2008), and Mascie-Taylor et al. (2003) carried out research on intestinal
parasites in different parts of the world.
Data regarding
intestinal parasites for different areas of the Pakistan is available but no
data appears in literature for the area under study. Therefore the present
preliminary study was conducted to evaluate prevalence of intestinal parasites,
during October and November, 2010, in school going children at District Upper
Dir Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan.
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