Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) are two parasitic diseases mainly affecting school children. The purpose of this study was to estimate the current prevalence and infection intensity, in addition to the associations of these infections with age and sex, in children aged 4–17 years living in Osun State, Nigeria. From each participant (250 children), one urine and one stool sample were taken for the study, for the microscopic detection of eggs or larvae in faeces by means of the Kato–Katz method and eggs in filtrated urine. The overall prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis was 15.20%, with light infection. The intestinal helminthic species identified (and their prevalence) were S. stercoralis (10.80%), S. mansoni (8%), A. lumbricoides (7.20%), hookworm (1.20%), and T. trichiura (0.4%), all of them being classified as light infections. Single infections (67.95%) are more frequent than multiple infections (32.05%). With this study, schistosomiasis and STH are still endemic in Osun State, but with a light to moderate prevalence and light infection intensity. Urinary infection was the most prevalent, with higher prevalence in children over 10 years. The >10 years age group had the highest prevalence for all of the intestinal helminths. There were no statistically significant associations between gender and age and urogenital or intestinal parasites.

Cryptosporidiosis is an important major cause of enteric parasitic infection among infants and children in developing countries with morbidity and mortality especially among immune- deficient individuals. Poor performance of traditional diagnostic procedures in many laboratories can resulted in misdiagnosis and mistreatment, thereby probably promotes drug resistance. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of enteric Cryptosporidiosis in children attending primary health centers in Egbedore local government area of Osun State, Nigeria between July–December 2014. Informed consent questionnaires were administered to collect demographic data and a total of 180 stool samples were collected to detect Cryptosporidium oocyst and antigen using Modified Ziehl Neelsen (MZN) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods, respectively. Prevalence of 38.3% (72/188) and 46.8% (88/188) was obtained by MZN and ELISA, respectively. The prevalence was higher in children between 1–2.5 years and lower in children above 2.5 years. There was significant association between diarrhea and prevalence rate (P = 0.006; P < 0.05) for ELISA and ZN, respectively. The present results show that cryptosporidiosis poses a public health challenge in children found in Egbedore. This study also warrants intensified effort towards awareness of the disease and proper diagnosis is needed most especially among immunocompromised individuals.

Background: Nigeria has a high prevalence of malaria, with asymptomatic patients being one of the possible reservoirs. In this context, accurate diagnosis is essential for malaria control. The efficacy of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) is being threatened by false negatives due to pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 deletions. This study aims to describe malaria in asymptomatic schoolchildren in Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria and to assess the performance of malaria diagnosis, including the characterisation of pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 deletions. Methods: A total of 350 dried blood spot (DBS) samples from schoolchildren were used for malaria diagnosis using microscopy, RDTs, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for microscopy and RDTs, using PCR as the gold standard. Pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 deletions were analysed for all P. falciparum-positive samples using multiplex qPCR. Results: The P. falciparum infection frequency among asymptomatic schoolchildren in Osun State was 89%. Considering PCR as the gold standard, microscopy presented better sensitivity at 100% (86% for RDTs), but RDTs had better specificity at 76% (60% for microscopy). The deletion frequency of the pfhrp2 gene among positive samples was 16.6%, while it was 1.3% for pfhrp3 and 0.9% for double deletion. However, considering all positive samples, only 3% of samples yielded false negatives by RDT with deletion in pfhrp2. Conclusions: P. falciparum infection has a high frequency in asymptomatic schoolchildren, being a potential hotspot for malaria. The combination of RDTs and microscopy could increase the accuracy of malaria diagnosis. Deletions in pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 are highly common in Osun State, but their impact on RDT results is still limited. More surveillance studies are recommended to assess the contribution of asymptomatic children to malaria transmission and the impact of deletions.