RESUMO
BACKGROUND: This study was carried out in Opi-Agu a tropical semi-urban autonomous community comprising of three villages in Enugu State, Nigeria, between the months of April and June 2010. It was designed to determine the prevalence of Onchocerca volvulus infection and assess the perception of the disease among the inhabitants of this community. METHODS: A total number of 305 individuals comprising of 148 males and 157 females were examined for various manifestations of onchocerciasis symptoms using rapid epidemiological assessment (REA) method. RESULTS: Out of this number, 119 (39.02%) individuals were infected. Prevalence of infection among age groups and villages varied. Age group 41 yr and above had the highest (31.00%) prevalence, while among the villages, Ogbozalla village ranked higher (45.71%) than the other villages. Overall the prevalence of infection among the sexes revealed that males were more infected (43.24%) than the females (35.03%). Lichenified onchodermatitis (LOD) was the most prevalent (35.29%) onchocerciasis symptom among others identified in the area, while leopard skin (LS) had the lowest (20.17%) occurrence and blindness (0.00%) which is the most devastating effect of O. volvulus infection was not observed. Questionnaire responses from 410 individuals revealed that 34.8% respondent from Idi village and 28.1% from Ibeku village believed that O. volvulus infection occurs through poor personal hygiene. Bite of blackfly ranked least (10.6%) among the respondent's knowledge of the causes of onchocerciasis in Opi-Agu community. CONCLUSION: Opi-Agu community members had poor knowledge of onchocerciasis, the vector and of its etiologic organism. There is need for integration of community health education with mass chemotherapy.
RESUMO
The present study investigated the effects of first record of co-infection of three Clinostomum sp.; Clinostomum Complanatum (Rudolphi, 1819), C. tilapiae (Ukoli, 1966), and Euclinostomum hetereostomum (1809) in Tilapia zilii. There was differential parasitic effects resulting in selection for relatively better adaptiveness to host's microhabitats, more population size, and frequent host location of these parasites during the one year survey (Nov 2007-Oct 2008) in Opi Lake, Nigeria. Prevalence of 9.4 % was recorded in C. complanatum, 10.4 % in E. heterostomum and 4.8% in C. tilapiae. The parasites were recovered from three major microhabitats of buccal cavity, skin and eye.
RESUMO
Urinary schistosomiasis is caused by the deposition of eggs by adult flukes in the blood vessels surrounding the bladder of the infected host. Schistosomiasis is ranked the second most important parasitic disease of man and undoubtedly the most important of helminth origin. This paper reports the prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium infection among pregnant women in some endemic tropical semi – urban communities of Anambra State, Nigeria, screened using Medi-Test Combi 9 and urine centrifugation methods. Laboratory analysis of urine samples collected from 172 pregnant women indicated that 41 (23.8%) had urinary schistosomiasis with Anam community having the highest prevalence of 35.1% among other communities. The overall prevalence and intensity of infection among age groups showed that the youngest age group in the study, 16-20 years had the highest prevalence. Out of 24 women within this age group, 12 (50.0%) were infected among which 8 (33.3%) had light infection while 4 (16.6%) had moderate infection. The peak mean intensity of 7.6 eggs/10ml urine was observed in age group 16-20 years while the oldest age group, 41-45 years had the lowest mean intensity of 1.0 egg/10ml urine. Haematuria and proteinuria which are diagnostic for schistosomiasis were higher within age group 16-20 years in all the communities with Anam community having the highest prevalence of 50% for both biochemicals within age group 16-20 years. The findings from this study will be useful in developing specific programme for this special group of women.
