School-Based Intervention: Evaluating the role of Water, Latrines and Hygiene Education on Trachoma and Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to evaluate the impact of a hygiene and sanitation intervention program among school-children to control active trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections.

METHODS

This longitudinal epidemiologic study was conducted among 630 students in rural Ethiopia. Baseline and follow-up surveys were conducted to evaluate the impact of a three pronged intervention program i) constructing of ventilated improved pit latrines, ii) provision of clean drinking water, and iii) and hygiene education. Socio-demographic information was collected using a structured questionnaire. Presence of trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections were evaluated using standard procedures.

RESULTS

At baseline 15% of students had active trachoma while 6.7% of them were found to have active trachoma post intervention (p<0.001). Similar improvements were noted for parasitic infections. At baseline 7% of students were reported to have helminthic infections and 30.2% protozoa infections. However, only 4% of students had any helminthic infection and 13.4% (p<0.001) of them were found to have any protozoa infection. Improvements were noted in students' knowledge and attitudes towards hygiene and sanitation.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of our study demonstrated that provision of comprehensive and targeted sanitation intervention program was successful in reducing the burden of trachoma and intestinal parasitic infection among school children.