Enteroparasitosis and risk factors in schoolchildren from a city in northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Enteroparasitosis is a group of diseases provoked by helminths and protozoan, that living in the gut light of children and adults, determine in the first conditions can result with a deficit for the process of schooling. Therefore, the objective of this study was to do a survey of prevalence of enteroparasitosis and risk factors for these infections in schoolchildren of a city from alagoano hinterland. For that, a sample of feces was collected, and a blade was read for each participant. A semi-structured questionnaire was applicated for the knowledge of the risk factors associates with the parasitological infection. Of the 107 participants of study, 48 these (45%) were parasitized for at least one species of parasite. The species of parasites found were: Entamoeba coli (39,58%), Entamoeba histolytica/dispar (29,16%), Giardia lamblia (20,8%), Endolimax nana (16,6%), Iodamoeba butschilii (12,5%), Trichuris trichiura (10,41%), Hymenolepis nana (4,16%), Ascaris lumbricoides (4,16%) e Strongyloides stercoralis (2,08%). Of the positives, 52% were female gender, 64,5% lived in own home, 60,4% had father as chief of family, 70,8% lived in street with sewer running into the open sky, 79,1% claimed to handwash before meals and 83.3% also after to use the bathroom, 75% had the habit playing in places with earth and 64.5% lived in street with animal breeding, but 72.9% had the habit walk shoes. None of the variables analyzed showed statistical association significative with the dependent variable parasitological infection. That, this study evidence that in the city studied still there is an elevated prevalence of student infection by enteroparasitosis.