The Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites among Students in Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: The study is undertaken to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites and the predisposing factors that make the students to be susceptible to intestinal parasitic infections in the study area. Study Design: Complete randomized design was used to sample the population of students who attended the University Health Centre during the period of the research. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria from February to September, 2015. Methodology: Fresh faecal samples were collected into sterilized bottles from 300 students (204 male and 96 female, age range 10-50 years and mean age 25 years) who attended the university health centre from February to September 2015. Useful epidemiological information such as weight, eating habit, source of drinking water and toilet types were obtained from the subjects through administration of structured questionnaire. The eggs, cysts and larvae of the intestinal parasites were concentrated using flotation method and viewed with X10 and X40 magnifications of the binocular microscope. The prevalence of infection was calculated as the ratio of infected individuals in the population examined while significance of various parameters tested was established using Chi-square at 5% significance level.  Results: The results revealed prevalence of eight species of intestinal parasites among the study group. The parasites include: Entamoeba histolyitca and Giardia lamblia (Protozoa), Ascaris lumbricoides, Enterobius vermicularis, Trichuris trichiura, Strongyloides stercoralis and hookworm (Nematodes). Schistosoma mansoni was the only trematode encountered in the study. Among these parasites, A. lumbricoides was the most prevalent (3.7%) while G. lamblia, T. trichiura and S. stercoralis were the least prevalent (0.7%). All the intestinal parasites observed in this study were not significantly different between genders (P > .05, χ2 = 0.928, n=300). In contrast, the prevalence of intestinal parasites varied significantly among the age groups with age group 10-20 years being the most susceptible age group in the study area (P value = .05 χ2 = 0.03, n=300). Conclusion: Feeding habit of the subject and toilet types are major factors that predisposed the subjects to gastrointestinal parasites in the study area. Therefore, personal hygiene and public enlightenment on proper cooking of meat and fish should be intensified in the study area to completely eradicate gastro intestinal infections in public schools.