Introduction:

Intestinal parasites are a highly prevalent disease worldwide and locally, they are widely distributed in the different regions of our country. In the Andean zone, there is a higher prevalence of protozoan parasites in relation to helminths.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites in elementary students from District 7, Viacha on April 2017.

Methods:

A descriptive, observational, cross-sectional and prospective study was developed where 122 students were considered as a representative sample of the population, after signing an informed consent by their tutors. Fecal stool samples were collected and the analysis was carried out through simple coproparasitological examination in the microbiology and parasitology laboratory of the Nursing School of the Universidad Publica de El Alto.

Results:

A prevalence of intestinal parasites of 59% (n = 72) was found, being the most found pathogenic species G. intestinalis (9.84%) and among commensals B. hominis and E. coli (34.43% for each case). Likewise, cases of parasitic associations such as biparasitism (n = 24) and tryparasitism (n = 2) could be evidenced. Regarding the distribution of parasitosis according to gender and age groups, it was possible to show that the most affected gender was the male (p <0.05) and there was no difference between the age groups (p = 0.638).

Conclusion:

A high prevalence of intestinal parasitosis was found in students from District 7, Viacha.