Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites among school children in District Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection among school going children across District Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. A total of 222 stool specimens (156 from boys and 66 from girls) were taken from participants of age 4-15 years. Among 222 inhabitants 81 were included from urban and 141 from rural areas. Overall prevalence of parasitic infection was found to be (73.87%). A total of 10 different species (7 helminthes and 3 protozoans) were detected. The parasites encountered were Ascaris lumbricoides (54.50%), Taenia saginata (16.22%), Hymenolepis nana (10.81%) and Taxocara species (10.36%), Trichuris trichiura (6.76%), Entamoeba coli (5.41%), Giardia lamblia (2.25%), Entamoeba histolytica (1.3%), Enterobius vermicularis (1.3%) and hookworms (0.45%). Ascaris was more frequent (75.18%) in rural community, while Taenia saginata (35.80%), Hymenolepis nana (25.93%) and Taxocara species (28.40%) were more prevalent among urban population.