Detection of Hookworm (Necator Americanus) and Other Intestinal Parasitic Infection among Primary School Children in Sokoto Metropolis

Abstract

Background: Hookworm is an intestinal parasite of human and is one of the major public health burdens in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that about 3.5 billion people globally and 450 million people are thought to be ill as a result of such infections, the majority being children.
 Aims: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of Hookworm and other intestinal parasitic infection among primary school children
 Study Design: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study
 Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in among patients attending Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Sokoto state, between March to November, 2017.
 Methodology: A total of 224 participants were enrolled for the study. Standard parasitological examination was carried out on stool samples using microscopy followed by formal ether concentration methods
 Results: Finding revealed, an overall prevalence of 4.5% out of 224 samples examined recorded for both Hookworm and other intestinal parasitic infection. There was high prevalence rate of Hookworm and other intestinal parasitic infection among males (5.3%) than females (3.6%).29 (12%) were positive for intestinal parasitic infections. Males recorded higher prevalence than the females with 19 (11.9%) and 10 (11.8%) respectively
 Conclusion: The total low prevalence rate of Hookworm and other intestinal parasitic infection may be as a result of improved standard of living and awareness of the Hookworm and other intestinal parasites in the study area. The government, non-governmental agencies and private individuals should help in the provision of social amenities to ensure total eradication of these diseases. The teaching of health education in both private schools should be encouraged by the government which will go a long way in reducing prevalence and intensity of Hookworm infections among the study community.

Parent Occupation as Risk Factor of Hookworm Infection in Primary School Children in Sokoto, Nigeria

“…The Lack of significant association in age group from this study could be explained by a shared contaminated environment by the children of all age group. Infection does not significantly associate with the source of water which agreed with the earlier reports by Pandya et al (2017) in India and Mohammed et al (2021) in Sokoto. However, This is contrary to the observation made by Assudani et al (2015) in India and Bala et al (2019) in Sokoto who separately noted the occurrence of hookworm infection was significantly higher in those that having drinking water from open well.…”

“…The 13.0% overall prevalence of hookworm in this study is however high when compared with findings of Agbo et al (2019) who reported 9.0% of hookworm infection among Pupils of University of Calabar Staff School. The prevalence from this study is also high when compared with 4.5% of hookworm reported by Mohammed et al (2021) among primary school children in Sokoto and 4.9% of hookworm among school children in Samaru, Zaria by Bishop et al (2022).…”

Parent occupation as risk factor of hookworm infection in primary school children in Sokoto, Nigeria

“…The Lack of significant association in age group from this study could be explained by a shared contaminated environment by the children of all age group. Infection does not significantly associate with the source of water which agreed with the earlier reports by Pandya et al (2017) [42] in India and Mohammed et al (2021) [28] in Sokoto. However, this is contrary to the observation made by Assudani et al (2015) [8] in India and Bala et al (2019) [10] in Sokoto who separately noted the occurrence of hookworm infection was significantly higher in those that having drinking water from open well.…”

“…The 13.0% overall prevalence of hookworm in this study is however high when compared with findings of Agbo et al (2019) [4] who reported 9.0% of hookworm infection among Pupils of University of Calabar Staff School. The prevalence from this study is also high when compared with 4.5% of hookworm reported by Mohammed et al (2021) [28] among primary school children in Sokoto and 4.9% of hookworm among school children in Samaru, Zaria by Bishop et al (2022) [13] . The result is however low when compared with result of study conducted in the North-east Nigeria by Wosu and Onyeabor (2014) who reported 80.9% of hookworm infection and finding in River state by Abah and Irene (2015) [2] who reported 25.0% of the infection among Primary School children.…”