Authors
C-K Fan, C-M Chou, M N Mathobela, P-C Cheng, T-W Chuang
Published in
Journal of helminthology. Volume 100. Pages e118. Sep 18, 2026. Epub Sep 18, 2026.
Abstract
Preschool children in the Kingdom of Eswatini are excluded from the national school-based deworming programme and had never been surveyed for parasitic infection. During June 2019 we conducted a cross-sectional baseline survey of 261 children (mean age 4.8 ± 0.75 years) attending 16 kindergartens and community care points across 4 provinces. Enterobius vermicularis was sought on peri-anal cellophane/Scotch-tape swabs (n = 261); Schistosoma haematobium in single urine specimens by the chamber-tube microscope-slide (CTMS) sedimentation method (n = 232); and intestinal helminths and protozoa in single stool specimens by the merthiolate-iodine-formaldehyde (MIF) concentration method (n = 175). Pinworm prevalence was 3.8% (10/261) and did not differ by sex (p = 0.76) or province (p = 0.83). S. haematobium ova were found in 0.9% (2/232), both in boys from recognised endemic foci. Intestinal parasites were detected in 41.1% (72/175), with no significant sex (p = 0.64) or regional (p = 0.70) variation; protozoa predominated (97.2% of positives) over helminths (4.2%; all Ascaris lumbricoides), the commonest species being Blastocystis hominis (61.1%) and Giardia lamblia (34.7%). These first baseline data reveal a high burden of intestinal protozoa alongside a low but measurable burden of pinworm and urogenital schistosomiasis in Eswatini preschool children, and support extending screening and preventive chemotherapy to this previously unmonitored age group using the simple, field-deployable cellophane-swab, CTMS and MIF methods.
PMID:
42757648
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Sep 2026.
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