PREVALENCE OF ASCARIASIS AMONG PUPILS OF OHOVBE PRIMARY SCHOOL

ABSTRACT

Ascariasis is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by Ascaris lumbricoides. It is more common to children and adult in tropical and substropical areas where sanitation is poor. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of ascariasis among pupils of Ohovbe primary school, Ikpoba-okha LGA of Benin, Edo state, Nigeria. A clean dry universal container was given to each pupil for their stool specimen.  A well structured questionnaire was also given to each pupils to obtain their socio demographic characteristics. The two hundred(200) stool samples collected were examined by formula-ether concentration method to microscopically identify Ascaris lumbricoides. The result of this study revealed 41(20.5%) prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides. It was also observed that the prevalence of Ascaris infection was higher in males (58.53%) than in females (41.43%). The prevalence rate across the age group also shows that the age group 8-9 years (51.21%) had the highest prevalence, followed by the age group 10-11 years (29.26%), age group 12-13 had the lowest prevalence (19.51%) while 14-16 had no positive case. The result showed that there was a significant association between age and the prevalence of Ascaris infection. A significant association was also observed between some sociodemographic factors such as water source, toilet type and hand washing in relation to Ascaris infection (p=0.028, p<0.0001 and p=0.013) respectively. In conclusion, children  are most commonly affected, and in this age group the infection may cause poor weight gain, malnutrition and learning problems. It is therefore important to set up mordern sanitary buildings and practices,  provide proper orientation on hand washing habits, food hygiene and the availability of swift medical services to provide antiparasitic drugs.