N Sahamin1; T Ganesan1; N F Mohd Diah1; H Wahab1; S N Mohd Zain1; 1 University of Malaya, Malaysia
Discussion
Human parasitic infections are far more common in socioeconomic deprived communities due to lack of basic facilities and poor hygiene practices. Therefore, a health screening program was conducted partly to determine the parasitic infection status of the urban poor communities from three states namely; Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Malacca. A total of 172 fecal samples were collected between October 2015 to May 2017 from low income households. Formalin ethyl acetate concentration technique was used to detect presence of helminth infections while, Modified Ziehl – Neelsen staining technique screened for the protozoan Cryptosporidium spp. Helminth infections were low (20.3%) with two parasite species recovered; Ascaris lumbricoides (18%) and Hymenolepis nana (3.5%). Meanwhile, the overall prevalence of protozoan infections was 8.14% (n≤14) with Giardia sp. (n≤1, 0.58%) and Cryptosporidium spp (n≤13, 7.56%). Education level, access to piped water supply, employment sector, solid waste disposal method, common eating method and frequency of hand washing were significant risk factors to infection. The low infections were attributed to the supply of clean drinking water and basic amenities provided to the population.
