Prevalence of Urinary Schistosomiasis among School Aged Children in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

An investigation was conducted to determine the prevalence of urinary Schistosomiasis in two localities namely,Wushishi and Zungeru of Wushishi local government of Niger State. Urine samples were collected from 100 school children of each of the two localities and investigated for eggs of Shistosoma haematobium using standard filtration techniques. The water contact activities of the inhabitants whose samples were collected were also obtained, using questionnaire method. Result obtained showed that 80 (40.0%) inhabitants were infected with a mean egg count. The infection rate was found to be higher among males (47.5%) than the females (28.75%) but the mean eggs count tend to be higher among the females (7.5 eggs/10ml of urine) than males (5.8 eggs/ml of urine). The results also showed that children aged 10 – 15 yrs old had the highest infection rate of 48.75% with 16.0 eggs/10ml of urine.

Key words: prevalence, urinary schistosomiasis