Abstract
Parasitic helminth infection remains to be a public health problem of the students and children in
remote rural areas, especially in the Northeastern part of Thailand. This survey was aimed to find out the
parasitic helminth infection rate, to analyze the spatial distribution with the application of geographic
information system (GIS), and to study the risk behaviors of parasitic helminth infection amongst students
in eight schools under the responsibility of the Border Patrol Police (BPP) Sub-division 21. The
survey was conducted during October 2014 to July 2015. The instrument for the survey was modified Kato-Katz technique for examining stool samples, and in-depth interview. The results showed that the
infection rate of helminth parasites was 8.27% (72 cases from overall 871 cases). The most common species
of helminth parasites found was hookworm at 51.39%. Others were Opisthorchris viverini 25.00%, Echinostoma spp. 12.50%, Enterobius vermicularis 5.56%, Trichuris trichiura 2.78%, Ascaris lumbricoides 1.39%, and co-infections of O. viverrini and hookworm 1.39%. When applying the GIS to analyze the parasitic helminth infection’s spatial distribution of the 8 BPP schools, the results showed that the parasitic helminth infection was higher than target limit of less than 5% in every school (14.71%, 12.30%, 10.00%, 8.96%, 6.43%, 6.14%, 6.00% and 5.41%). The distribution and the concentration of helminth parasite species were different in each habitat of the students. Most of the infections were caused by soil-transmitted helminths (STHs). Bad sanitation and inappropriate food consumption habits increased risk of infections. The findings of this research can be used to estimate helminth infection situation of the community and also can be applied to create strategic plans which focus on changing behaviors of students, their parents and their teachers to solve this problem.
