Parasitic infections and woman health

ABSTRACT

The present study was carried out on 400 Egyptian women ranging in age from 15 to 49 years. Full history, complete clinical, parasitological and hematological examination was done; also, rectal biopsy and indirect detection of schistosomiasis in urine by using Schisto-Fast kit was done. The results showed that the prevalence rate of parasitic infection was 15.2%, 8.2% of them were mixed infected cases. The most frequent parasite was S. mansoni. The highest prevalence rate of infection was 68.4% among the reproductive age group of 15-20 years. The prevalence of anemia was 76.7% in the infected group versus 69.7% in the noninfected one. The highest prevalence of anemia was in the age group of 20-35 years; also, 76.8% of the infected group had microcytic anemia, which is the commonest type in all anemic cases [57.4%]. Schistosomiasis was found to be the most important cause of anemia