Intestinal Parasitism In Rural And Urban Areas Of North Central Nigeria: An Update

An updated study of intestinal parasites, including the emerging protozoan pathogens was carried out in the rural and urban areas of North Central Nigeria in June/July 2005. A total of 111 and 93 fecal samples were collected from the rural and urban areas respectively and examined using the Formol-ether and modified Ziehl Nielsen techniques. A prevalence of 50.5% for intestinal parasitism (excluding Cryptosporidium parvum and Microsporidia) was recorded for the rural area as against 44.1% for the urban area (P>0.05). The prevalence of the individual parasites in the rural and urban areas respectively was: Microsporidia (48.6% and 47.3%); C. parvum (29.7% and 19.4%); Entamoeba histolytica (18.9% and 18.3%); E. coli (16.2% and 9.7%); Endolimax nana (16.2% and 18.3%); Schistosoma mansoni (9.9% and 0.0%); Giardia lamblia (7.2% and 4.3%); Hookworm (4.5% and 5.4%); E. hartmani (1.8% and 0.0%); Strongyloides stercoralis (0.9% and 0.0%); Iodamoeba butschlii (0.0% and 1.1%); Enterobius vermicularis (0.0% and 1.1%). Polyparasitism was recorded in 24(21.6%) of the rural population as against 10(10.8%) in the urban population (P 0.05). There was an inverse relationship between the BMI (Kg/m2) and the prevalence of intestinal parasitism (P 0.05). There was also no significant difference in the prevalence of Entamoeba species in both the rural and urban areas with 53.2% and 46.2% respectively (P>0.05). For the ruminants (Cattle, sheep and goats), prevalence of 13.0% and 17.4% were recorded for C. parvum and Microsporidia respectively. The oocysts of C. parvum were not detected in the feces of the screened goats. This study has therefore shown that the prevalence of intestinal parasitism in both the rural and urban areas is still unacceptably high and frantic efforts should be made to reduce this trend. The high prevalence of C. parvum and Microsporidia in the screened population, coupled with the increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS is not commendable, since these parasites play a role in the etiopathogenesis of chronic diarrhoea in AIDS patients.