PREVALENCE OF INTESTINAL PARASITES AMONG DIABETIC PATIENTS ATTENDING SOME HOSPITALS IN KADUNA METROPOLIS, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

A parasite is an organism that resides on or within another living organism (the host), in order to find the environment and nutrients required for its own growth and development. Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is recognized as being a syndrome, a collection of disorders that have hyperglycaemia and glucose intolerance as their hallmark. This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of intestinal parasites among patients with diabetes attending some hospitals in Kaduna metropolis. A total of 320 individuals, this include 260 (99 males and 161 females) DM patients and 60 (12 males and 48 females) Non-DM individuals attending some hospitals in Kaduna were used for this study. Stool specimens were collected from diabetic patients and processed based on standard techniques to detect intestinal parasites. An overall prevalence of 21.9% of intestinal parasitic infections among DM patients was observed in this study. Ascaris lumbricoides (23/62, 37.1%), Entamoeba coli (17/62, 27.4%), Entamoeba histolytica (9/62, 14.5%), Enterobius vernicularis (1/62, 1.6%), Giardia lamblia (1/62, 1.6%), Hookworm species (6/62, 9.7%), Schistisoma mansoni (1/62, 1.6%), Strongyloide stercoralis (2/62, 3.2%), and Taenia spp (2/62, 3.2%) were recovered from DM patients. Age, level of education and occupation were significantly affected the intestinal parasitic infections in DM patients at p value of p = 0.013; p = 0.009 and p = 0.031; respectively. In this study, 25% Type I DM and 22.2% Type II DM patients were infected with intestinal parasites, while 21.4% and 24.2% of the low and middle income DM patients respectively were infected with intestinal parasites. Diabetes Mellitus patients are advised to prevent intestinal parasitic infection, routinely screen for intestinal parasites, frequently de-worm and treat intestinal parasites.