Perfil epidemiológico das enteroparasitoses em pré-escolares e escolares da rede municipal de ensino de Sinop - MT ; Epidemiological profile of endoparasitoses in preschoolers and school children of the school district of Sinop - state of Mato Grosso ; Relación entre el saneamiento básico y la incid...
Introduction: Protozoa and helminths cause enteroparasitoses, which constitute an important public health issue. Preschoolers and school children, who do not have a fully developed immune system, are more vulnerable to contamination by intestinal parasites because they are more exposed to risk factors, such as poor hygiene habits and crowding in closed places. The most common parasites affecting this age group include Giardia lamblia, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworms. Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of intestinal parasites in preschoolers, school children, sandboxes of government schools in the city of Sinop – state of Mato Grosso (MT). Methods: This cross sectional, quantitative study with an experimental design was carried out from July 2015 to September 2016 and included preschoolers and school children aged 3 to 12 years, chosen by convenience sampling from government schools in the school district of the city of Sinop – MT; four schools were in the central region of Sinop, whereas seven schools, attended by children living in the suburban and rural areas, were far from the city center. Fecal samples were collected by the children's family and sent to the schools, from where they were transported to the laboratory for parasitological examination. Sand samples were collected from sandboxes in the play areas of the schools. More specifically,100 g of sand was collected by scraping one of the four quadrants or the center of the sandbox surface or deeper into the sandbox, totaling 10 samples/box. The parasitological methods spontaneous sedimentation described by Hoffmann, active migration described by Rugai, centrifugal-spontaneous flotation described by Faust, and spontaneous flotation described by Willis were used to analyze the fecal and sand samples. Results: A total of 646 fecal samples obtained from preschoolers and school children aged 3 to 12 years were evaluated; 21.05% of the samples tested positive for intestinal parasites. As for the sand samples, 100% tested positive ...