International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | June 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 6 Page 2585 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Mareeswaran N et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Jun;5(6):2585-2589 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Prevalence of intestinal parasites among urban and rural population in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu N. Mareeswaran 1 , A. K. Savitha 2 *, S. Gopalakrishnan 3 INTRODUCTION Parasites are the organisms that live on other organisms or hosts to survive. Some parasites don’t affect their hosts, while others grow, reproduce or invade organs that make their hosts sick, resulting in a parasitic infection. 1 There are 3 main classes of parasites which are capable of producing diseases in human beings. They are Protozoa, Helminthes and Ectoparasites. 2 Protozoa are microscopic single celled organisms, can be free living or parasitic in nature. 2 They can multiply in humans which contribute to their survival and also permit serious infections. Entamoeba histolytica is a protozoan which can cause amoebiasis and Giardia lamblia which causes giardiasis. 2 Helminthes are large, multicellular, visible to the naked eye in their adult stage. 2 They are also free living or parasitic in nature. Helminthes like Flukes and Tapeworm can cause diarrheal disorders and cyst in the visceral organs. 2 Ectoparasites are the blood sucking arthropods such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, mites which acts as the vectors of malaria, Q fever, relapsing fever, plaque etc. 2 Intestinal parasitic infections are the most common and important health problem worldwide. Sixty percentage of the world’s population is infected with abdominal ABSTRACT Background: Intestinal parasitic infections are globally endemic and is a major public health problem of concern. The prevalence is high in developing countries like India probably due to poor sanitary conditions and improper hygiene. Among the various intestinal parasites, the prevalence of Entamoeba, Ascaris, Ancylostoma, Giardia and Trichuris have been studied in this research. Methods: This is a cross sectional study which involves 205 urban and 185 rural populations. The data was collected from the Urban and Rural health training centres in Anakaputhur and Padappai of Kancheepuram district respectively over a period of three months from August 2017 to October 2017. Data entry was done in MS Excel and analysis was carried out in SPSS software version 22. The analysis was done using descriptive and analytical statistical methods. Results: Among the rural and urban population, 185 stool samples from the rural population showed nearly 50.8% intestinal parasites (E. histolytica 40%, A. lumbricoides 2%, A. duodenalae 5%, Giardia 1%, T. trichura 3%). On the contrary 205 stool samples from urban population showed 23.4% of intestinal parasites (E. histolytica 18%, A. lumbricoides 2%, A. duodenalae 5%, Giardia 0%, T. trichura 0%). The increase in the prevalence of intestinal parasites among rural population than the urban population was statistically significant. Conclusions: The stool samples collected from rural population showed high prevalence of intestinal parasite infestation when compared to urban population, hence necessary interventions like health education, awareness creation and medical intervention should be undertaken particularly among the rural population. Keywords: Worm infestation, Sanitation, Hygiene, Socioeconomic status Department of Community medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India Received: 06 April 2018 Accepted: 09 May 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. A. K. Savitha, E-mail: drsavitha22@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20182199