Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitic Helminths from the Fingernails of Primary School Pupils in Makurdi Benue State

Intestinal helminth infections are widely distributed throughout the world and children are the most affected population. The present study was carried out to assess the prevalence of intestinal helminths in children of primary schools in Makurdi, Benue State. Sterile cotton balls soaked in 10% formol saline were used to swab the underneath of the fingernails to collect 200 nail dirt samples from the school pupils of different ages and gender. The parasites were isolated from the dirt of both gender and prevalence was recorded. The direct mount method was used in the identification of parasites. The prevalence of parasites was presented as descriptive statistics, while the relationship between several variables (such as age and gender) and the presence of parasites were determined by Chi-square test. The level of significance used was P<0.05. The highest prevalence was observed for Ascaris lumbricoides (35%) whereas the lowest prevalence was found for Strongyloides stercoralis (15%). The other parasite found was Ancylostoma duodenale (30%). Overall prevalence was found to be 10%. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic helminths was found to be higher in males with 13.19% than in females with 7.34%. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of the infection among gender. The distribution of intestinal parasitic helminths among the selected primary schools indicated that there was no significant difference in the occurrence of the helminths between the schools. The occurrence of fingernail parasites among children in primary schools can cause chronic infections which can negatively affect all aspects of children’s health.