Intestinal parasitosis among the elderly people in Kathmandu Valley.

Present study was carried out among the elderly people (60+ years of age) from August 2005 to July 2006 in Kathmandu Valley to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitosis in them. Stool samples were collected from 235 elderly people (122 from government elderly home, 66 from private elderly home and 47 from the households in a rural community). The samples were examined by formal ether sedimentation and Sheather's sucrose floatation followed by Kinyoun's modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites was found to be 41.7%, out of which 30.6% had multiple parasitism. The government elderly home had significantly higher parasitic prevalence (50.8%) followed by the rural community (46.8%) and the private elderly homes (21.2%) (P<0.05). Males (43.8%) had slightly infection rate than females (40.4%) (P>0.05). There was equal infection rate with protozoa (25.8%) and helminths (27.0%). Trichuris trichiura (39.4%) and Entamoeba histolytica (19.7%) were the commonest helminth and protozoa, respectively.