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Abstract

Abstract


The present study deals with investigation of the prevalence of intestinal parasites among food handlers. A total of 42,022 specimen of faeces were examined for different intestinal parasites at the Public Health Laboratories of Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. These food handlers visited the Preventive Medicine Department for their medical fitness certificates. Findings revealed that the total of 14,136 (33.64%) persons were positive for different pathogenic intestinal parasites. They were found to show ten species of helminths and protozoa with overall incidence of 23.91% and 14.96% respectively. Ancylostoma duodenale was prevalent among the helminth group, with an incidence of 13.80%. E.histolytica were highly prevalent among the protozoan group with an incidence of 8.88%. Results are tabulated according to their nationalities, percentage of positivity of individual parasites and the total positive of faeces. The percentage of the total number of positive food handlers were 14,136 (33.64%) while the positivity of the individual parasites among these positive specimen was 16,326 (38.85%). The percentage of parasites were more as some of the faeces showed more than one parasites. The faeces of 42 different nationals were examined. Maximum food handlers were Indians (70.26%), second was Pakistanis (11.21%). From our findings we interpret that the intestinal parasites prevalence rate is high among Indians and also our findings suggest that the most common intestinal helminth was
A. duodenale