Abstract

  Kashmir valley is the most densely populated part of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The enormous population, along with the absence of basic amenities, favourable climatic conditions and underdeveloped public health care system favour the transmission of intestinal helminthiasis. Present paper reviews the prevalence of intestinal helminth infections in the Kashmir Valley and need for control strategies. A survey of published literature by virtue of PUBMED was done. Also many other bibliographic databases were searched to retrieve the relevant articles. After excluding duplicate studies, 11 research papers were retained for this paper. Intestinal helminth infections like those of Ascaris, Trichuris, Enterobius and Taenia saginata in Kashmir Valley remain very high. Majority of the infected are young children between the age group of 5 and 14 years. The age group, rural or urban residence, type of water source, boiled or unboiled water, type of defecation site, level of personal hygiene and maternal education were associated with helminth infection. Since the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends chemotherapy for intestinal helminth infections among school-age children, there is no government policy for helminth control in Kashmir Valley. Present article stresses on regular school-based programs to deliver anthelmintics to all school age children so as to reduce the prevalence of helminth infections in Kashmir Valley

Keywords: School-Based Control; Helminths; Chemotherapy; Children; Kashmir Valley

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Citation

Citation: Showkat Ahmad Wani and Sheikh Tanveer Salam. “Intestinal Helminthiasis in School Age Children of Kashmir Valley and the Need for Intervention: A Systematic Review". Acta Scientific Microbiology 3.5 (2020): 39-44.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Showkat Ahmad Wani and Sheikh Tanveer Salam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.