Human fascioliasis in a rural area, Alexandria. Part I: disease prevalence, public awareness and utilization of health services

The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of human fascioliasis in Abis village, to assess the public awareness about the disease and to identify the utilization pattern of available health services. Accordingly, a household survey was conducted by systematic random sampling. A total of 3475 stool samples were collected and examined by duplicate Kato slides for fasciola eggs. A total of 2340 persons were interviewed by a predesigned questionnaire to assess their knowledge and source of information about the disease, out of them 68 [2.9%] gave a past history of fascioliasis those were asked about their utilization pattern of available health services. The results revealed a significantly higher prevalence rate of human fascioliasis in Abis 8 [13.2%] than in Abis 7 village [7.3%]. As regard public awareness concerning fascioliasis, about one quarter of the interviewees had never heard about the disease and only 7.8% achieved a good knowledge score. About 19% of the study sample knew the disease host and 75.7% knew its mode of transmission, while 35.6% did not know any of its clinical manifestations and about 20% did not know the investigations needed for its diagnosis. Moreover, about 15% of the interviewees did not know any of the methods of disease prevention but 76.2% mentioned that proper washing of leafy vegetables may prevent disease transmission. It was also found that only 19.6% of the study sample mentioned primary health care [PHC] facilities as their source of information about the disease. About 72% of the 68 cases giving a past history of fascioliasis were diagnosed by the PHC physicians and only 29.4% were treated at the primary level. It may be concluded that active case finding revealed a much higher prevalence rate of human fascioliasis in Abis than as estimated by passive case finding, which may be due to the low public awareness about the disease