Anaemia and intestinal parasitic infections among school age children in Behera Governorate, Egypt

Anaemia is considered a serious public health problem in Egypt, although up dated population-based data are lacking. Similarly, data on prevalence and intensity of infection with intestinal parasites, which are considered one possible cause of anaemia, are available only from small, unrepresentative sample surveys. The present research was implemented on an entire Governora te representative sample. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of anaemia and intestinal parasites in the area and to evaluate the role o f each parasite in the epidemiology or anaemia among school age children. A t the end of the survey, results of faecal analyses from direct smear and t he Kato-Katz examination techniques were available from 1844 and 1783 child ren respectively, as well as haemoglobin levels measured by spectrophotomet er from 1238 children aged 6-12 years. The prevalence of anaemia in the are a was high (90 per cent), but very few serve forms were detected (< 2 per c ent). Prevalence of intestinal parasites was high only for protozoa (Giardi a intestinalis 24.7 per cent Entamoeba histolytica 17.5 per cent) and Schis tosoma mansoni (20.7 per cent), From analysis of the results, Fasciola infe ction appeared to be highly endemic, even among children (3 per cent), and emerged as the factor most strongly correlated with low levels of haemoglob in (p < 0.0001), The effect of Fasciola on haemoglobin levels was related t o the intensity of infection with this parasite. The role of S. mansoni as a risk factor for anaemia was supported by the present study. Among the pro tozoa, G. intestinalis was significantly correlated with low haemoglobin le vels (p < 0.05), The present results substantiated similar findings from sm aller studies. In future research, the relationship between Fasciola infect ion and anaemia needs to be studied with a well-controlled longitudinal des ign.