Journal of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences

  Prevalence of Intestinal Parasite Infections in the Day Care Centers of Bam

 �R. Ahmad-rajabi MSc ¹ * , F. Varzandeh Bs ² , M. Arab MSc ¹ , A. Abbaszadeh PhD ¹

  1- Academic member, Kerman university of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

  2- Microbiologist (BSc), Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

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  Background: prevalence of intestinal parasites is one of the important indices of health in any community and combating with these parasites is one of the important parts of national expanded programs in the tropical countries. This study was conducted to determine the intestinal parasites and related factors among Bam^,s day care centers.

  Materials and Methods: In this analytical descriptive study 370 day care center children were selected randomly-stratifyial. Data were collected by means of questionnaire consisting of information such as age, sex, parents^, educational level and job, place of living, type of Day Care Center , infant nutrition, weight at birth, and number of children. Two methods were used to detect the presence of intestinal parasites, direct exam and Formalin-ether concentration method at three consecutive times. The scotch tape method was used to examine the Enterobius verrmicularis .

  Results: 47 percent of the subjects were infected by one or several intestinal parasites. The prevalence of intestinal helminths were 3.24% and intestinal protozoa were 43.76%. Contamination rate in boys was 43.1% and in girls it was 56.9% and among the day care centers located in urban and rural areas contamination rate was 51.7% and 48.3%, respectively.

  A significant relation was found between place of day care center, parent^,s educational level and job, weight at birth time, number of children, number of family, and parasitic infections (p<0.05).The relationship between sex, age and parasitic infections was not significant. Most of the infected children were among 6-7 years old.

  Conclusion: It is recommended that continuous education for children and their families about personal health must be a criteria in health implementation in day care centers and at admittance to the day care centers, parasitological tests should be done three times in one week.

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  Keywords: Intestinal parasites, Children, Day Care Centers , Bam

  Corresponding author, tel: (344) 2216180