Malnutrition in relation to some intestinal parasitic infection in children of Kirkuk city-Iraq

Malnutrition and infection with intestinal parasites are widespread in almost all developing countries, high rate of people in the world are infected with protozoal and helminthes parasites. Most of cases are asymptomatic but some intestinal parasites can cause severe diarrhea and malnutrition problems. Four hundred and thirty children (257 male and 173 female) whom attended the parasitology section of Kirkuk General Pediatric and Azady Teaching Hospitals, were chosen for this study. Their ages were 1-12 years. The weight and the height of each children were recorded. Stool samples were taken from them and examined microscopically for parasitic finding. The frequency of malnutrition was significantly more in males (29.9%) than in females (15.6%). The most age group which were more malnourished in both males and females were 8-11years. Although the number of inpatients (336) was higher than outpatients (94), but malnutrition showed no significant differences between them. The total malnourished children were 24%. Most of the normal malnourished children had body mass index (BMI) range of 13-16.9, while most of the moderate malnourished had BMI range of 13-14.9 and the sever malnourished BMI were 8-12.9.The most prevalent parasite in both sexes were Entamoeba histolytica followed by Giardia lamblia, Hymenolepis nana, Enterobius vermicularis and Cryptosporidium parvum, and the lowest rate was for Ascaris lumbricoides. The most malnourished children were infected C. parvum with a rate of 60%, followed by E. histolytica and G. lamblia with rate of 18.7, 10.4% respectively, no malnutrition degree were noted with other parasites. A significantly high rate of malnourished children had parasitic infection (30%) comparing with the total malnourished number (104). Diarrhea was significantly related with malnutrition degree and with parasites. 60% of the total moderately malnourished children had diarrhea and 84% of them had parasite with diarrhea, while in the total sever malnourished children, 87% had diarrhea and 100% had parasitic infection with diarrhea.