Khan Md. Murtaja Reza Linkon^1*, Utpal Kumar Prodhan¹, Md. Liton¹, Md. Kamrul Islam¹, Laisa Ahmed Lisa², Dipak Kumar Paul³

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¹ Department of Food Technology and Nutritional Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Tangail, Bangladesh.
² Department of Microbiology, Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Applied Nutrition and Food Technology, Islamic University, Kusthia, Bangladesh.
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Abstract: Children are becoming increasingly vulnerable to contagious disease around the world. It also leads to chronic health problems. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of contagious diseases in children of 5 - 12 years from five government primary schools (class II to V) in Tangail City, Bangladesh using multistage sampling method. Data were collected using a carry home questionnaire and diseases screening examination was done in the school. Prevalence of common contagious diseases was calculated. A total of 84 students were screened to have contagious diseases by clinical examination, giving a prevalence rate of 8.76% from 958 participated school children. The prevalence of contagious disease among the affected children in the study was found 30.95% for scabies, while 20.24% for influenza and 7.14%, 9.52%, 15.48%, 5.95%, & 10.71% for typhoid, chicken pox, measles, pneumonia, and whooping cough, respectively. Anthropometric measurements were recorded which indicated that 48.8% of children were well-nourished and 21.4%, 17.9%, & 11.9% of children were underweight, stunted, and wasted, respectively. However, these data are extremely important to define the problem and to design proper intervention strategies.

Keywords: School Children, Contagious Diseases, Nutritional Status, Cross Sectional Study, Prevalence

Cite this paper: Linkon, K. , Prodhan, U. , Liton, M. , Islam, M. , Lisa, L. and Paul, D. (2015) Prevalence of Contagious Diseases of School Going Children in Bangladesh. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 3, 17-24. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2015.37003.

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