Iyaji Florence Oyibo^1,, Abuh Aishat¹, Yaro Clement Ameh¹, Mohammed Danjuma¹

Background: Waterborne and sanitation-related infections are one of the major contributors to diseases burden and mortality in the world with children and poor individuals in rural areas being the most affected. Different parasitic diseases such as giardiasis, toxoplasmodiasis, amoebiasis, cryptosporidiosis have been associated with contaminated drinking water. In this study, a survey on the parasitic contamination of drinking water sources was carried out in Anyigba and Iyale of Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria, to evaluate the level of contamination of water sources and their public health implications. Materials and Methods: Water samples were collected from five sample streams in the selected communities. The water samples were examined for parasites using formal saline concentration method. A drop of sediment obtained after centrifugation at 4000 rpm for 6 minutes was placed on a clean glass slide and viewed under the microscope at x10 and x40 objectives. The parasites were identified using the standard keys of Cheesbrough (2006). Results: A total of twelve waterborne parasites were observed in the water samples collected from the five streams with an overall prevalence of 15.6%. The individual prevalence of these parasites were 4.4% (Entamoeba species), 4.0% (Schistosoma haematobium), 2.6% (Giardia duodenale), 1.6% (Diphyllobothrium latum), 1.6% (Strongyloides stercoralis), 1.6% (Gastrodiscoides hominis), 1.2% (Trichuris trichiura), 1.2% (Taenia species), 0.8% (Ascaris lumbricoides), 0.8% (Hook worm), 0.8% (Isospora rivolta) and 0.4% (Hymenolepis diminuta). The prevalence of the parasites in the streams were 24.0% (Abujalake), 16.0% (Ajidam and Oganaji), 12.0% (Ajieko) and 10.0% (Ajietito).

drinking water, rural areas, protozoans, helminths, Dekina LGA, Kogi, Nigeria