Parasitological findings in stool Samples of children under five years in An inland rural community in Ghana

Abstract

Diarrhoea is one of the causes of childhood morbidity and mortality through dehydration in the developing countries. For this reason a 12- month study was undertaken to investigate the role of parasitic agents in diarrhoea among children under five year! in an inland rural community. Four hundred and sixty five (465) stool samples made up of 203 diarrhoea and 262 non-diarrhoea cases were examined, using the direct smear and the formol-ether-concentration techniques for the presence 0f parasitic agents. Out of the 203 diarrhoea samples 70 (34.5%) were found to contain parasitic agents while 133 (65.5%) were free from such organisms. Eighty nine samples (34.0%) of the 262 non-diarrhoea subjects were also found to be positive and 173 (66.0%) were negative. The parasitic agents detected were Ascaris lumbricoides followed by Chilomastix mesnili, Giardia lamblia, hookworm and Strongyloides stercoralis. Entamoeba histolytica and Trichuris trichiura were also detected. Concurrent infection was common. The youngest among the positive cases was a five month old child with a mix infection of Ascaris lumbricoides and hookworm, agents transmitted through the soil. According to these results there was no significant difference between the number of positive cases among both the diarrhoeal and non-diarrhoeal subjects but a prevalence rate of 44.2% and 20.2% of G. lamblia among the diarrhoeal and controls respectively is significant.