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DOI: 10.4103/ajm.AJM_8_19
Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among university female students, Gaza, Palestine
Financial support and sponsorship This work was funded privately by the authors.
Abstract
Background: The intestinal parasites are still endemic among children, women, and men in Gaza Strip. Objectives: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of intestinal parasites among young female students of Islamic University of Gaza to report the existence and prevalence of intestinal parasites. Methods: A total of 305 stool samples were collected from female students in all faculties and were examined by wet mount and formal ether sedimentation technique. Results: This study showed that the overall prevalence of intestinal parasites was 20.6%. The detected intestinal parasites were as follows: Entamoeba histolytica/dispar (7.5%), Giardia lamblia (4.9%), Ascaris lumbricoides (0.3%), Entamoeba coli (2.6%), Dientamoeba fragilis (1.0%), and Blastocystis hominis (3.9%). Science students showed the highest prevalence for parasitic infections (35.3%), and married students (16.7%) had higher prevalence than single students (6.5%). Conclusion: It was concluded that female students also are under risk of gaining parasitic infection in spite of their education. It is recommended that university students should be subjected to regular medical examinations for parasitic infections.
Publication History
Article published online:
09 August 2021
© 2019. Syrian American Medical Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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