Prevalence and Intensity of Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis,Prevalence of Malaria and Nutritional Status of School Going Children in Honduras

Background:many small studies have been done in honduras estimating soil-transmitted helminthiasis (sth) prevalence but a country-wide study was last done in 2005. the country has the highest burden of malaria among all central american countries. the present study was done to estimate country-wide sth prevalence and intensity,malaria prevalence and nutritional status in school going children.methods and findings:a cross-sectional study was conducted following paho/who guidelines to select a sample of school going children of 3rd to 5th grades,representative of ecological regions in the country. a survey questionnaire was filled; anthropometric measurements,stool sample for sth and blood sample for malaria were taken. kato-katz method was used for sth prevalence and intensity and rapid diagnostic tests,microscopy,and polymerase chain reaction (pcr) were used for malaria parasite detection. a total of 2554 students were studied of which 43.5% had one or more sth. trichuriasis was the most prevalent (34%) followed by ascariasis (22.3%) and hookworm (0.9%). ecological regions ii (59.7%) and vi (55.6%) in the north had the highest sth prevalence rates while iv had the lowest (10.6%). prevalence of one or more high intensity sth was low (1.6%). plasmodium vivax was detected by pcr in only 5 students (0.2%),all of which belonged to the same municipality; no p. falciparum infection was detected. the majority of children (83%) had normal body mass index for their respective age but a significant proportion were overweight (10.42%) and obese (4.35%).conclusions:biannual deworming campaigns would be necessary in ecological regions ii and vi,where sth prevalence is >50%. high prevalence of obesity in school going children is a worrying trend and portends of future increase in obesity related diseases. malaria prevalence,both symptomatic and asymptomatic,was low and provides evidence for honduras to embark on elimination of the disease. © 2014 mejia torres et al.