OBJECTIVE We sought to evaluate the impact of a hygiene and sanitation intervention program among school-children to control active trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections. METHODS This longitudinal epidemiologic study was conducted among 630 students in rural Ethiopia. Baseline and follow-up surveys were conducted to evaluate the impact of a three pronged intervention program i) constructing of ventilated improved pit latrines, ii) provision of clean drinking water, and iii) and hygiene education. Socio-demographic information was collected using a structured questionnaire. Presence of trachoma and intestinal parasitic infections were evaluated using standard procedures. RESULTS At baseline 15% of students had active trachoma while 6.7% of them were found to have active trachoma post intervention (p<0.001). Similar improvements were noted for parasitic infections. At baseline 7% of students were reported to have helminthic infections and 30.2% protozoa infections. However, only 4% of students had any helminthic infection and 13.4% (p<0.001) of them were found to have any protozoa infection. Improvements were noted in students' knowledge and attitudes towards hygiene and sanitation. CONCLUSIONS The results of our study demonstrated that provision of comprehensive and targeted sanitation intervention program was successful in reducing the burden of trachoma and intestinal parasitic infection among school children.

中文翻译：

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学校干预：评估水、厕所和卫生教育对埃塞俄比亚沙眼和肠道寄生虫感染的作用。


目的 我们试图评估学童个人卫生干预计划对控制活动性沙眼和肠道寄生虫感染的影响。方法 这项纵向流行病学研究在埃塞俄比亚农村地区的 630 名学生中进行。进行了基线和后续调查，以评估三管齐下的干预计划的影响：i）建造通风改良坑式厕所，ii）提供清洁饮用水，以及 iii）和卫生教育。使用结构化调查问卷收集社会人口统计信息。使用标准程序评估沙眼和肠道寄生虫感染的存在。结果 在基线时，15% 的学生患有活动性沙眼，而其中 6.7% 的学生在干预后被发现患有活动性沙眼 (p<0.001)。寄生虫感染也有类似的改善。据报道，基线时 7% 的学生患有蠕虫感染，30.2% 的学生患有原虫感染。然而，只有 4% 的学生患有蠕虫感染，其中 13.4% (p<0.001) 被发现患有原虫感染。学生对卫生和环境卫生的知识和态度有所改善。结论 我们的研究结果表明，提供全面和有针对性的卫生干预计划可以成功减轻学童沙眼和肠道寄生虫感染的负担。