MUNISI DISSERTATION REPORT FINAL[1].pdf - muhas

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that led to the sustained low prevalence of STH infections in school children as it has been
reported that without environmental or behavioral changes the prevalence is likely to return to
pre-treatment level if treatment is stopped (Olsen, 2003). All visited schools had pit latrines
and shoe wearing has also become a tradition to most of the children, as on visual examination
majority of the school children wore shoes, and for a few who did not have shoes had sandals
(commonly known as yeboyebo) (Personal observation). This could partly explain for the
observed low prevalence of STH in school children.
The five children who were positive for the soil-transmitted helminths were all found to be
from the middle plateau zone, four of them from one school and another one from another
school. The localization of STH infections in the middle plateau zone relative to the other
zones could probably be because of some behavioral and environmental factors that favor
transmission of STH in this Zone. This observation is inline with the known fact that there is
considerable geographical variation in the occurrence of helminths infections in East Africa,
and that geographically targeted control programmes are required to maximize the costeffectiveness
of chemotherapy (Brooker et al, 2009).
In this study, of the STH infected school children, 3 had light intensity of infection with either
hookworm or/and Ascaris lumbricoides and two hade moderate intensity of STH infection.
The absence of heavy intensity of infection and the relatively higher prevalence of light
intensity of infection could be the result of the mass chemotherapy which was done in 2008,
the ongoing treatment of under five years children twice a year during the and probably some
other behavioral and environmental factors that discourages transmission of STH among
school children in the district.
In this study, stunting (HAZ ≤ -2) was observed in 42.3% of the study participants. 11.1% of
the study population was severely stunted. These results are almost similar to what has been
reported by a study done in school going adolescents in India, where they reported an overall