Overview of intestinal parasitic prevalence in rural and urban population in Lucknow, north India.

Intestinal parasitic infestations are a common finding in the developing world, however, the patterns of parasitic distribution and rates are different everywhere. Intestinal parasitic prevalece in urban and rural areas in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh were determined in this community-based study. Multistage random sampling was adopted to collect stool samples from urban and rural population in Lucknow district. Door to door survey was done. Stool samples were processed by standard methods for parasitological examination. One thousand and seventy one stool samples were collected from urban Alambagh, (n=648) and rural Mati, (n=343) areas. Overall one hundred and twenty three (11.5%) subjects had intestinal infection. Intestinal infestation rate was 5.4% and 20.8% in the urban and rural areas respectively. Giardia lamblia (22%) was the commonest pathogenic protozoan detected. The soil transmitted helminths detected were Ascaris (11.4%) and Hookworm (2.4%). Infection had no predilection for either sex or age group in both areas. The prevalence of parasitic infection appears to be relatively low in this region, probably due to improving access to health care. However due to the sheer numbers of affected individuals involved, intestinal parasitosis remains an important public health problem.