Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Deworming campaign in eastern Afghanistan – Prevalence of intestinal parasites and adoption of treatment strategy

Krzysztof Korzeniewski¹ , Alina Augustynowicz¹, Anna Lass²

¹Department of Epidemiology and Tropical Medicine, Military Institute of Medicine, Gdynia; ²Department of Tropical Parasitology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Poland.

For correspondence:- Krzysztof Korzeniewski Email: kktropmed@wp.pl Tel:+48665707396

Received: 19 April 2015 Accepted: 13 November 2015 Published: 27 December 2015

Citation: Korzeniewski K, Augustynowicz A, Lass A. Deworming campaign in eastern Afghanistan – Prevalence of intestinal parasites and adoption of treatment strategy. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(12):2299-2305 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i12.21

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence and species of intestinal parasites in an Afghan community as well as to establish appropriate treatment method for each of the detected pathogens.

Methods: Parasitological examination of stool samples collected from 777 children aged 1-17 years, treated in Ghazni Provincial Hospital (eastern Afghanistan) conducted in the period 2012 - 2013 made it possible to implement dedicated antiparasitic treatment.

Results: Of 312 children (40.2 % of the examined group; p < 0.05) infected with nematodes (n = 154, 19.7 %), cestodes (n = 90, 11.6 %), trematodes (n = 16, 2.1 %), and protozoa (n = 135, 17.4 %), 67 were diagnosed with co-infections (mainly ascariasis + giardiasis, ascariasis + hymenolepiasis, giardiasis + hymenolepiasis, ascariasis + giardiasis + hymenolepiasis) and received complex therapy (albendazole + metronidazole, albendazole + praziquantel, metronidazole + praziquantel, and albendazole + metronidazole + praziquantel).

Conclusion: Owing to high prevalence of multiple co-infections among inhabitants of the Afghan community, it seems that a mass deworming campaign with a single-dose chemotherapy (albendazole 400 mg or mebendazole 500 mg) may prove ineffective in eradicating intestinal parasites in the local population.

Keywords: Afghanistan, Intestinal parasites, Hymenolepiasis, Ascariasis, Giardiasis, Metronidazole, Albendazole, Praziquantel, Mebendazole, Deworming