Prevalence of schistosomiasis among primary school children in a newly reclaimed area

ABSTRACT

Fourty six pupils in the primary school of a recently developed village in New Nobaria area were included in this study. The search for schistosoma ova in stool, by sedimentation and modified Kato methods and in urine by nucleopore filtration technique were done for all the pupils. It was found that the prevalence of S.mansoni infection was 30.4 percent, for S.haematobium infection was 8.7 percent, for mixed infection was 6.5 percent and the over all prevalence of mixed infection was 6.5 percent and the over all prevalence of schistosomiasis was 45.7 percent. The infection rates were higher among males [56.7 percent] than females [25.0 percent]. As regards the intensity of infection among patients with S.mansoni, 52.9 percent of patients had light infection while 29.4 percent had moderate and 17.7 percent had heavy infection. All patients with S.haematobium infection had light infection. The modified Kato technique proved to be markedly superior to sedimentation technique in detection of S.mansoni ova in stools. It can be concluded from the results of this study that the prevalence of schistosomiasis among children in this village is a representation of the prevalence of schistosomiasis in their original residence