Full Length Research Paper

Prevalence and intensity of intestinal parasites in five communities in south-west Nigeria

B. A. Awolaju¹ and O. A. Morenikeji²*

¹Department of Biology, Osun State College of Education, Ilesa, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

²Parasitology unit, Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: jumokemorenikeji@yahoo.co.uk

Accepted 22 December, 2008

An investigation was conducted to determine the infection rate of intestinal parasites among 312 primary and post primary school children in randomly selected schools in five communities in Ilesa West Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria, between January and July, 2005. Faecal samples were collected from these subjects and examined. Direct saline and iodine preparations were examined as well as the preparation from sedimentation technique. The kato-katz technique was used for determination of intensity of worm infestation. 151 (48.40%) school children were infected. Ascaris lumbricoides and Entamoeba histolytica were the intestinal parasites found in the study population. Out of the 151 (48.40%) infected, 122 (39.10%) were positive for A. lumbricoides and 29 (9.29%) were positive for E. histolytica. Age group 5  - 7 years was mostly (50.00%) infected in primary school and age group 13 - 15 years was mostly (54.12%) infected in post-primary school.  The intensity rate of A. lumbricoides was light (100 - 3,000 egg) among the school children in both primary and post–primary schools. The overall infection rate in both primary and post-primary schools for males and females were 20.79 and 28.21% respectively, which implies that infection rate was higher in females but not statistically significant (P>0.05). The differences observed in the infection rates in the study locations were also not statistically significant (P>0.05).

Key words: Intestinal helminthes, A. lumbricoides, E. histolytica, sedimentation technique, kato-katz technique, south-west Nigeria.