School-based intervention: evaluating the role of water, latrines and hygiene education on trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections in Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the impact of a hygiene and sanitation intervention program among school-children to control active trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections. METHODS: This longitudinal epidemiologic study was conducted among 630 students in rural Ethiopia. Baseline and follow-up surveys were conducted to evaluate the impact of a three pronged intervention program i) constructing of ventilated improved pit latrines, ii) provision of clean drinking water, and iii) and hygiene education. Socio-demographic information was collected using a structured questionnaire. Presence of trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections were evaluated using standard procedures. RESULTS: At baseline 15% of students had active trachoma while 6.7% of them were found to have active trachoma post intervention (p<0.001). Similar improvements were noted for parasitic infections. At baseline 7% of students were reported to have helminthic infections and 30.2% protozoa infections. However, only 4% of students had any helminthic infection and 13.4% (p<0.001) of them were found to have any protozoa infection. Improvements were noted in students' knowledge and attitudes towards hygiene and sanitation. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study demonstrated that provision of comprehensive and targeted sanitation intervention program was successful in reducing the burden of trachoma and intestinal parasitic infection among school children.