ABSTRACT

This paper presents a school-based deworming program carried out from 2001-2005. It began with baseline studies in 2001 which indicated that intestinal helminth infection was endemic among schoolchildren with a prevalence of 80%in shantytown schools and 53% in apartment district schools. Ascaris lumbricoides was the most frequently detected helminth (45%), followed by Trichuris trichiura (25-30%) and Hymenolepsis nana (10-15%) and Taenia species (5%). Also school children were very much affected by nutritional deficiencies such as prevalence of stunting (24%), underweight (25%) and anemia (45%). The parasite control project was begun in 2002 in which 40.000 school children were treated with a single dose of 500 mg mebendazole. This was followed by delivery of 100.000 doses of mebendazole to the school children during the 2003-2004 school-years. During the 2004-2005 school-years, 120.000 primary schoolchildren, 20.000 high school children, 10.00 rural schoolchildren and 50.000 women and children (1-7 years old) were treated with mebendazole for helminth infections. In October-2005, stool examinations were carried out again in the shantytown and apartment district schools and it was found that the prevalence of infection had declined to 35% in shantytown schools and 6.4% in apartment district schools. The rate of Ascaris lumbricoides infection had fallen to 17%, with the rate of Trichuris trichiura to 1% and that of Taenia species to 0%. In contrast, the rate of Hymenolepsis nana had increased to 21%. These results indicated that parasite control program was successful and should be continued.

Keywords: Intestinal parasites, control program, Şanlıurfa, Turkey