City’s school worms shock
Up to 60% affected at some schools
AT some Port Elizabeth schools 60% of the pupils are infested with worms, according to a study unveiled at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University yesterday. Master’s student Siphesihle Nqweniso said two schools in Helenvale had hit the 60% mark and schools with infection rates over 40% had implemented mass deworming campaigns.
The study tested specifically for the human whipworm and the giant roundworm.
A total of 1 000 children had been tested, Nqweniso said.
She explained that the goal of their study was to investigate the health of disadvantaged primary school children in Port Elizabeth and specifically look at communicable diseases, like parasitic infections, chronic conditions like blood pressure and blood sugar problems and to measure fitness levels and cognitive performance.
Dr Liana Steenkamp, from the HIV and Aids research unit and the department of dietetics, said a holistic approach was needed to fight these infections.
Dr Cheryl Walters, from the department of human movement, said it should be taken into account that Helenvale was a densely populated area where poverty forced people to live close to each other, with many people sharing the same house.
She said while the South African population now had a disease profile close to that of Western countries as far as lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes were concerned, marginalised communities were also burdened with infectious diseases.
Another master’s student, Larissa Adams, said they had found that pupils infected with intestinal parasites had marked concentration problems and a larger percentage of errors in their work.
She said their academic performance overall was worse than uninfected children’s.
Their proposed interventions were fourfold and included health and hygiene education, medication and deworming, physical education and nutritional intervention, she said.
They would recommend mass deworming of children twice a year.
Steenkamp said they would next start looking at infection levels in children under the age of five.