Intestinal parasitic infections in Zahedan day-care units

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of infection with bowel parasites is still remarkably high in children of developing countries. Day-care units usually serve for the infants and children as their primary site of social contact; so we aimed to determine the frequency rate of bowel infections in children attending these places, on their arrival and comparing it with this frequency 4-6 months afterwards. Methods and Materials: In this descriptive-analytic longitudinal study performed during the latter half of 1378, a total of 853 children of 4-6 years were randomly selected from day-care units of different regions in Zahedan. After recording the demographic data, a direct stool exam, scatch test and formaline-etter test were done. In the first stage 411 and in the next stage (4-6 months later) 438 children were studied. Chi-square test was used to compare the infection rate between the first and second stages. Results: The rate of infected children was 19.1% and 42% in the first and the second stages respectively. The highest increase in infection rate belonged to Oxyuris which increased from 4.7% in stage one to 15.5% in stage two. The rate of infection with Giardia lambelia and Hemonolepsis nana was 10.6% and 3.1% in stage one, which respectively raised to 15% and 4.6% in stage two. The above increment was significant (P