Prevalence of Intestinal Schistosomiasis Among School Children in Shelleng Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Schistosomiasis or bilharzia is carried by freshwater snails is a global public health challenge and affects over 240m people globally with an estimated 200,000 deaths annually. The research on prevalence of intestinal schistosomiasis among school children was carried out in Shelleng due to the type of settlement as a riverine area. Stool samples were collected from the month of March-April 2019 and examined in the laboratory. Both saline wet mount procedure and formalin-ether concentration techniques were used. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. The overall prevalence was (0.9%) and the intensity of infection was (0.0%) of the 442 study participants examined. There were no gender-related differences in the prevalence (p˃0.05).  The age group 8 – 10 years had the highest prevalence (1.1%) followed by the age group 11 – 13 years (1.0%) while other age groups had (0.0%). Prevalence based on parent’s level of education (PE) indicated that, children whose parents had secondary education had the highest prevalence rate (6.1%) the least were children whose parent had primary education with prevalence rate of (0.0%), statistically there was a significant difference (p˂0.05). Information recorded on parent occupation (PO) reveals that, children whose parents are civil servants had the highest infection of (1.3%) followed by children whose parents are farmers with (1.0%). The least infection rate was recorded among children whose parents are in to fishing (0.7%), there was no significant difference (p˃0.05). Information on praziquantel administered, water contact and snail contact. Children that refused to take praziquantel chose (No) while those that took praziquantel chose (Yes) in the questionnaire. Children that chose (No) had the highest prevalence of (1.7%) while those that chose (Yes) had low prevalence (0.8%). Subjects that chose (Yes) in picking of snails had the highest rate of (1.1%). Subjects chose (Yes) for washing/bathing/swimming/drinking (WBSD) had the highest prevalence (1.4%) while (No) had the lowest prevalence (0.0%) and (0.0%) (p˂0.05). The prevalence rate was low generally due to the administration of praziquantel ten (10) days before stool samples were collected for microscopy. I recommend integrated method of control and treatment of the water bodies which is the source of infection to avoid re-infection.