Worms in your gut? Health workers checking poop in Narok

The Health ministry wants to know if you have worms.

Health workers are collecting stool samples in Narok county for a national baseline survey. The aim is to map the prevalence of intestinal worms and eliminate them. 

Samples will be collected from all age groups. Interventions previously focused on school children who are given deworming tablets once a year.

However, that hasn't been working and hasn't broken the community chain of transmission. Children who received the treatment at school went home and got reinfected.

“In Narok, we are going to households, not just to schools," Dr Sultani Matendechero said. He is the Health ministry's head of the division of vector borne and neglected tropical diseases.

"We are collecting from everybody to help us understand even within the community which age group is the hardest," he told the Star on Monday.

South Rift, Nyanza, Western and Coast have the biggest problem of parasitic worms.

Narok is one of the 27 counties with the highest burden of intestinal worms.

Various types of worms deplete the body of vital nutrients, leading to malnutrition that lowers immunity to infections. Severe cases can lead to bowel obstruction and stomach problems, eventually death.

Matendechero said the mapping will help develop targeted interventions at the community level to break the chain of transmission.

In the problem areas the government has been carrying out mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns at school. Children between the ages of five and 15 years are given deworming tablets annually.

 “In 2019, Kenya discovered these interventions, which were mainly school deworming, were not helping to interrupt transmission in communities," Matendechero said.

“We were just focusing on school children and using a lot of resources," he said.

"We give tablets to them, then they go home after treatment and are infected by other untreated members of the community."

Kenya is trying to interrupt transmission of diseases such as trachoma, elephantiasis and sleeping sickness.

Intestinal worms are transmitted by eggs in human faeces that contaminate the soil. This happens where sanitation is poor, hence, proper hygiene, safe water and good sanitation are important in eradicating worms and preventing re-infection.

Pre-school children, even those under age five, are being checked, as are women of childbearing age.

"Even among the general population, is it the women who are hardest hit, or the men?" the medic asked.

In severe cases, worms can infest the body and clog the intestines, causing bowel and stomach problems.

Without timely surgery to remove the worms, which usually resemble long entangled spaghetti strands, patients can die.

People infested with parasites can be treated using a sweet-flavoured medicine known as Albendazole. It is available in many public and private health facilities.

(Edited by V. Graham)