Soil transmitted helminth infections among school going age children of slums from Bhubaneswar, Odisha

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to determine prevalence and risk factors for soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection among school-going age children from slums of Bhubaneswar. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING: Microbiology laboratory of a tertiary care hospital, Bhubaneswar, during May 1–October 30, 2015 (6 months) including 360 children of 3–15 years from two populated slums of Bhubaneswar, assuming STH prevalence - 50%, confidence interval 95% and 10% relative precision. Purposively sampling by house to house visit was adopted to collect stool samples along with risk factors through questionnaires from each child after written informed consent of parents/guardians. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Direct saline mount and egg counting by Kato-Katz (KK) method for STH-positive samples was done. RESULTS: STH prevalence was 13.3%, more in males (68.8%), and significantly high (62.5%. P < 0.05) in school-going children between 6 and 12 years of age. Predominant STH was Ancylostoma duodenale (56.2%), 15% of parents were illiterate, 80% of houses had toilets, 70% were washing hand with soap and using footwear. STH infection was much less (12.5%) in those practicing handwashing with soap. Fifty percent of children had STH infection even after receiving deworming within the past 6 months. More egg counts - 216 eggs/gram of feces were found in 29 cases by KK method. Entamoeba histolytica (56.5%) was predominant among non-STH infections. CONCLUSION: STH prevalence of Bhubaneswar slums was minimum (13.3%), school-going children of 6–12 years were more affected and handwashing habit with soap was the key factor to prevent STH infection. The proportion of participants having toilet facility and using footwear regularly had no role in STH prevention.