Prevalence of Gastro-intestinal Parasitic Infections among Patients in Bafia Health District, Center Region Cameroon: A Retrospective Study

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections among patients consulting at the Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis of the District Hospital in Bafia, Catholic Health Center of Gondon and Sub-Divisional Medical Centers of Bokito and Ombessa.

Study Design: The retrospective study conducted covered available data from January 2007 to December 2014. Records of patients referred to the Laboratory of these Health Centers were manually reviewed for gastrointestinal infections. Data were recorded according to age, occupation, sex and marital status of patients and the type of parasite involved, and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 17.0).

Results and Discussion: A total of 35 587 stool samples were analyzed using the direct examination method between January 2007 and December 2014. For the past eight years, 3 species of protozoan and 7 species of helminths were identified with a prevalence of 07.23% and 15.7% respectively and an overall prevalence of 22.83%. Protozoans as Entamoeba histolytica (22.27%), Giardia lamblia (4.97%) and Cryptosporidium spp (1.23%) as well as helminthes as Ascaris spp (24.1%), Schistosoma spp (16.17%), Hookworm (11.55%), Taenia spp (11.55%), Trichiuris trichura (7.06%), Strongyloides stercoralis (2.12%) and Enterobius vermicuralis (0.59%) were recorded.

Conclusion: From these results, both preventive and curative campaigns should be encouraged and intensified in the study area so that the scourge of gastro-intestinal infection should no longer be an issue of public health importance.