Urinary Schistosomiasis in Children—Still a Concern in Part of the Ghanaian Capital City

Abstract

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease of the tropics which is estimated to affect up to 300 million people worldwide. While it is being successfully controlled in many countries, it remains a major public health problem, especially in de- veloping countries including Ghana. Extensive work on schistosomiasis has been undertaken along the Volta River ba- sin, leaving very little data and information on this infection in the urban and peri-urban areas in Ghana. This study was aimed at determining the urinary schistosomiasis burden among children of school going age within Zenu, a suburb of the capital city. Urine samples were taken from 274 school children within the Zenu community and examined with urine chemistry dipsticks for detection and confirmation of haematuria, followed by microscopy for detection of Schis- tosoma haematobium ova. Prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis was 30.7% (95% CI: 25.2 - 36.2). 44 (52%) of the positive samples were collected from males whiles 40 (48%) were collected from females, but prevalence of the infec- tion was not significantly associated with gender (χ2 = 0.041, DF = 1, P-Value = 0.839). Among the S. haematobium positive children, haematuria was detected by the dipstick in 88.1% (74/84, 95% CI: 81.2 - 95.0), but it was not detected in 11.9% (10/84, 95% CI: 5.0 - 18.8). Meanwhile, the dipstick detected haematuria in 7.3% (20/274, 95% CI: 4.3 - 7.3) of the total population but microscopy could not detect the presence of Schistosoma ova in those children. An associa- tion was found between Schistosoma infection and haematuria detected by dipstick (χ2 = 84.715, DF = 1, P-Value < 0.001). It could be noted that urinary schistosomiasis in children is still a concern in parts of the Ghanaian capital city.