Occurrence of Intestinal Parasites Among the Slum Children

A cross sectional research was undertaken in a slum area of Dhaka city, Bangladesh from March, 2015 to February, 2016, a total of 98 children were selected from this slum area between age group 0 to 15 years by random sampling. Thirteen species of parasites were identified by formol-ether concentration method. By formol- ether concentration method, the prevalence of E. histolytica (9.18%), E. coli (3.06%), G. lamblia (14.29%), Trichominus honimis (1.02%), Balantidium coli (1.02%), Paragonimus westermani (2.04%), Taenia spp. (5.10%), H. nana (11.22%), A. lumbricoides (36.73%), T. trichiura (27.55%), A. duodenale (10.20%), E. vermicularis (2.04%) and Trichostrongylus spp. (2.04%) were recorded. Statistically it was observed that age groups had significant association with parasitic infestation (p<0.05) but prevalence did not alter significantly according to sexes (p>0.05). Highest prevalence (91.67%) was found in age group 8-11 years and prevalence (82.61%) was recorded in summer season. The males (52.94%) were more infected than females (47.05%). Several risk factors such as practices, occupational and socio economic states showed significant (p<0.05) association with gastrointestinal parasitic infection.