A Comparative Study on the Prevalence of Intestinal Helminthes in Dewormed and Non-Dewormed Students in a Rural Area of North-Central Nigeria

Parasitic helminthes are endemic in Nigeria, owing to poor environmental sanitation, pollution, and contamination of water and air. Children in Nigeria are highly exposed and very vulnerable to these infections, and these infections have adverse effects on their physical and mental development. School children, then, are good targets for mass-treatment programs against intestinal worms; treating children has been shown to reduce transmission to untreated members in communities. This study determines the effectiveness of deworming school children with a view to improving the planning and implementation of control programs in the study area and reveals that regular use of broad-spectrum anti-helminth medication is advocated for effective deworming programs.