Schistosoma mansoni infection as a predictor of severe anaemia in schoolchildren in eastern Sudan.

A cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for severe anaemia among schoolchildren in New Halfa, eastern Sudan. After taking age and gender, haemoglobin (Hb) levels were measured and all children were screened for malaria and intestinal parasitic infections, including schistosomiasis. Six hundred and forty (230 boys, 410 girls) schoolchildren aged 8-18 years were enrolled. The mean (SD) of the haemoglobin was 9.6 (1.7) mg/dl. One hundred and eleven (17.3%) and 33 (5.2%) children had Schistosoma mansoni infection and Hymenolepis nana infection, respectively. Five hundred and eighty (90.6%) of these children had anaemia (Hb < 12 g/dl), and 103 (16.0%) of them had severe anaemia (Hb < 8 g/dl). Girls (OR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.1-5.3; P = 0.01) were at higher risk for severe anaemia in univariate and multivariate analyses. Schistosoma mansoni infections were associated with severe anaemia in univariate analyses only. Thus, there was a high prevalence of severe anaemia among these children. This needs to be investigated in more depth in the future, and more attention should be paid to the health of adolescent girls.