Epidemiological Study of Intestinal Parasitosis at the Albert Royer National Children’s Hospital

Intestinal parasites are very common and represent a public health problem worldwide. Despite all the mass drug distribution strategies, these diseases still pose a public health problem in Senegal. It is in this context that we conducted this study, the aim of which was to reassess the epidemiology of intestinal parasitosis in children aged 0 to 15 years over one year in the parasitology-mycology laboratory of the Albert Royer Children’s Hospital. The study involved 1426 children aged between 2 months and 15 years, with an average age of 5.15 years. Children under 5 years of age represented 52.59% of the study population, and those over 5 years of age were 47.41%, with a sex ratio of 1.5. There were 176 subjects carrying at least one parasitic species, giving an overall prevalence of 12.34%. Of the children with parasites, 76.14% had intestinal protozoosis and 23.86% had helminthiasis. The parasitic species isolated were represented by Entamoeba coli (51.70%), followed by Giardia lamblia (17.05%), Entamoeba histolytica (5.11%), Trichomonas intestinalis (1.14%) and Entamoeba histolytica (0.57%). The main helminths found were eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides (21.02%) followed by Ankylostoma duodenale (1.14%), Trichuris trichiura (1.14%) and Taenia sp. (0.57%). The results of our study show once again the endemic nature of the disease.