ABSTRACT

 The prevalence of malaria and gastrointestinal parasitic infections in children, 0-14 years old of age attending Health Centres in some parts of Ohaji and those randomly selected far away from the locations of the health centres due to their inaccessibility to the health centres within Ohaji were studied between the months of June to December, 2009. A total of 331 children made up of the various age groups were studied. The result of the blood samples showed that malaria prevalence was highest in 3 - 5 age groups (30.3%), followed by 0-2 age group (25.4%) and 6-10 age group (20.5%),and least was found among 11-14 age group (11.5%). Faecal examinations showed that Ascaris spp had the highest prevalence of 44% followed by Hookworm (30.5%) and E. histolytica (20%). The least occurrence of gastrointestinal parasitic infection were found to be S. stercoralis and C. parvuum, (0.9% each), followed by S. mansoni (2.1%) respectively for the entire groups. It was also observed that the prevalence of anaemia determined from the co-infected individuals through their haemoglobin(HB) level values were found to be highest in the age group 3-5 years (15.7%) and least in 11-14 age group (5.4%). The associations between parasitic infections and anaemia were significant. Anaemia due to malaria and intestinal parasites co-infection, especially in those co-infected with hookworm and E. histolytica were observed to be most prevalent among the studied population. Consequently this resultant anaemia among the children may lead to weakness (dizziness), poor growth and probably the cause of high rate of mortality among the children. Regular deworming of these children by the agencies concerned and good environmental sanitation, as well as adequate health education of the entire children and care-givers, parents to enhance the hygiene standards of these children were emphasized.