Introduction:

The increase of intestinal parasitic infections in the world, reinforces their threat to public health in Mexico, particularly among children and marginalized populations, with reports of high prevalence in most regions of the country. However, information on the current status of this problem in localities according to their level of urbanization is still very limited.

Objective:

To determine and compare the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among rural, suburban, and urban schoolchildren in the municipality of Hermosillo, Sonora.

Methodology:

The sample universe of this study was 16 049 schoolchildren officially enrolled in 10 elementary schools randomly selected from a total of 295 public elementary schools. The sample that agreed to participate voluntarily was 1,344 schoolchildren (8%). This was a cross-sectional study, where two to three stool samples were collected per participant, during the period from 2010 to 2015, and were processed by the Faust, Kato Katz, Kinyoun, and ELISA methods.

Results:

A total of 1,344 schoolchildren between the ages of 5 and 12 years participated. Of these, 52.3% were girls and 47.6% boys. A high prevalence of pathogenic protozoa, Cryptosporidium sp. (30%), and Giardia duodenalis (18.8%), was observed. Like non-pathogenic protozoa, Endolimax nana (20.8%) had the highest prevalence, while Iodamoeba butschlii(4.2%) had the lowest prevalence. Hymenolepis nana (2.4%) was the only helminth found.

School children from rural (46.1%) and suburban (44.6%) localities showed the highest prevalence of intestinal parasitosis than those from urban localities (28%) (P <0.05).

Conclusions:

A high prevalence of parasitosis was found in schoolchildren from the three localities of the municipality of Hermosillo, while those from rural and suburban localities presented higher prevalences than schoolchildren from urban areas.