Revista de Bacteriología y Parasitología

Abstracto

Prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium and Soil-Transmitted Helminths Infections among School-Aged Children in Quelimane and Gurue Districts, Central Mozambique

Célio Alfredo*, Guido André Nchowela, Armando Aurélio Mabasso, Izaidino Jaime Muchanga, Aly Salimo Muadica

Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths are endemic in Mozambique, affecting mostly children and young people from suburban and rural areas where socioeconomic and sanitary conditions are deficient. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium and soil-transmitted helminths infections among school-aged children, through parasitological and molecular methods. Urine and stool samples were collected from 350 and 234 children respectively. The investigation of Schistosoma haematobium eggs was performed by the urine filtration technique, and PCR was used to detect the parasite DNA in the samples. The detection of soil-transmitted helminths in stools was performed using the Kato-Katz method. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 24. The global prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium by filtration method was 38.4% and 73.4% (68.1-78.1 95% CI) by PCR technique. For soil-transmitted helminths the overall prevalence was 32.1% for Ascaris lumbricoides, 35.5% for Trichuris trichiura and 5.1% for Hookworms. The study indicates that Schistosoma haematobium and soil-transmitted helminths continue to have a significant prevalence in these districts, requiring additional control measures, particularly the strategic use of anthelmintics, improvement of sanitary conditions and health education.