Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites among Students of a Tertiary Institution in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

A tertiary institution in Jos that admits students who are resident in the hostel where sources of water are from borehole, rain and commercial sachet water had complains from the students as a result of stomach pains and discomfort. The prevalence of intestinal parasites and most prevalent parasite among students of Federal School of Medical Science, Jos through experimental study was conducted among all the students available in the hostel of the tertiary institution in the month of September 2017 and analyzed with Percentages. Sixty faecal samples were examined for intestinal parasites by Macroscopy, Microscopy: direct and formol-ether concentration techniques. Twenty six (26) out of sixty samples were positive for intestinal parasites giving a prevalence of 43.3%. The age groups 15-20 and 21-25 years had the highest prevalence of 34.6%. Age groups between 31-35 had the lowest of 3.8%. Parasites identified were Ascaris lumbricoides (69.2%) hookworm (15.4%) and Schitosoma mansoni (15.4%). This study shows that students who use borehole (65.4%) were more infected than those drinking rain water (15.4%) and sachet water (19.2%). The prevalence in males were (26.9%) and females (73.1%) than those who washed their vegetables (23.1%). Students of Federal School of Medical Laboratory Science, Jos had a parasite prevalence of 43% of which Ascaris lumbricoides was more prevalent (69.2) followed by Hookworm (15.4) and Schistosoma mansoni (15.4). The management of the school should provide safe water and adequate education for prevention.