An investigation was conducted to determine the infection rate of intestinal parasites among 312
primary and post primary school children in randomly selected schools in five communities in Ilesa
West Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria, between January and July, 2005. Faecal samples
were collected from these subjects and examined. Direct saline and iodine preparations were examined
as well as the preparation from sedimentation technique. The kato-katz technique was used for
determination of intensity of worm infestation. 151 (48.40%) school children were infected. Ascaris
lumbricoides and Entamoeba histolytica were the intestinal parasites found in the study population. Out
of the 151 (48.40%) infected, 122 (39.10%) were positive for A. lumbricoides and 29 (9.29%) were
positive for E. histolytica. Age group 5 - 7 years was mostly (50.00%) infected in primary school and
age group 13 - 15 years was mostly (54.12%) infected in post-primary school. The intensity rate of A.
lumbricoides was light (100 - 3,000 egg) among the school children in both primary and post–primary
schools. The overall infection rate in both primary and post-primary schools for males and females
were 20.79 and 28.21% respectively, which implies that infection rate was higher in females but not
statistically significant (P>0.05). The differences observed in the infection rates in the study locations
were also not statistically significant (P>0.05).