Trend Analysis of Intestinal Parasitic Infections at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia from 2017 to 2021: A Five-Year Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction

In Ethiopia, intestinal parasites are common due to poverty, poor personal hygiene, poor environmental sanitation, overcrowding, a lack of safe drinking water, and a lack of knowledge. As a result, evaluating the intestinal parasite morbidity pattern in low-income countries such as Ethiopia is important for designing intestinal parasite intervention programs that minimize the illness burden. Despite the high prevalence of the disease in the Debre Tabor catchment areas, there is a lack of data on the trend of intestinal parasites. As a result, the study’s goal was to close the gap on the patterns of intestinal parasite infection for better control and intervention programs.

Methods

A retrospective study was conducted from 2017 to 2021 at Debre Tabor comprehensive specialized hospital to determine the trend of intestinal parasite infection. The findings of 7965 saline wet mount stool examinations were collected from the laboratory registration book by trained data collectors over the last five years. The study excluded any data that lacked sociodemographic characteristics and the year of the stool examination. Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS version 25.

Results

The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites during the study period (2017–2021) was 2171 (27.3%) out of 7965 patients. Entamoeba histolytica/dispar (18.6%) was the predominant parasite, followed by Giardia lamblia (5.7%) and Ascaris lumbricoides (1%). Males (28.6%) were infected at a higher rate than females (26.2%) (P = 0.02). The intestinal parasite was reported in all age groups in the area, but the highest and the lowest prevalence were reported in the age groups of above 14 years (27.7%) and under five years (23.4%), respectively (P = 0.03).

Conclusion

The finding showed cyclic patterns of fluctuations in the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections. Therefore, it is important to develop effective prevention and control strategies to prevent the distribution of intestinal parasites.

Keywords:

• Debre Tabor hospital
• intestinal parasitic infection
• trend analysis

Abbreviations

DCSH, Tabor comprehensive specialized hospital; IP, intestinal parasites.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Debre Tabor specialized hospital laboratory coordination office for letting us collect the data. We also want to express our gratitude to the data collectors.

Disclosure

The authors declare no competing of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was obtained for this study.