ABSTRACT
Background: There is no study that estimates the prevalence of vernal
keratoconjunctivitis and the association between vernal keratoconjunctivitis
and intestinal parasitic infestation in our setting. Purpose: This study
aimed to estimate the vernal keratoconjunctivitis prevalence, describe the
profile of sensitization and determine the association between vernal
keratoconjunctivitis disease and intestinal parasitic infestation in school
children of Kinshasa during the scholar year from 2022 to 2023. Methods:
An observational, cross-sectional study was performed from September 2022 to
June 2023. The children with vernal keratoconjunctivitis were recruited by
using the four-stage probability sampling technique. Children attending in the
school children of Kinshasa with vernal keratoconjunctivitis were enrolled in
the classroom and underwent a clinical examination and skin prick test for 11
allergens and stool examination direct with microscope in the Laboratory. Data
were entered in Microsoft Sheets using SPSS version 20.0. The Chi-square test
was used to compare the sex, age groups, home environment (grow trees and/or
flowers around the yard), dampness in the house, keeping pets (cat and/or dog),
number of people per household, number of people sharing a bedroom and
intestinal parasitic infestation. The significant level was set to a value of p
< 0.05. Results: A total of 28,800 students from four-stage
probabilist sampling technique in school of Kinshasa were included, and 2100
students had symptoms according to the
vernal keratoconjunctivitis-related symptom questionnaire. Children with
vernal keratoconjunctivitis were enrolled and the mean age ± standard was 7.2 ±
3.7 years, with a prevalence of 7.2% and gender was three boys for one girl.
All vernal keratoconjunctivitis children recruited in urban and rural part had
33.1% positive skin prick test (SPT) and 67.9% showed polysensitization.
Children an urban part was more sensitized than rural respectively with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus 28.1% vs 28.9%, p = 0.00001, Blomia tropicalis. 15.9%
vs 14.9%, p = 0.00001 and cockroach 12% vs 13%, p = 0.00001 in both parts.
Vernal keratoconjunctivitis children in rural part were more affected to the intestinal
parasite than urban with Ascaris lumbricoides 14% vs 18.3%, p = 0.0006, followed
by Ancylostoma duodenale 9.5% vs 12.5%, p = 0.003, Anguillule
7.9% vs 10.1%, p = 0.001, Oxyure 5.7% vs 8.2%, p = 0.0001 and Trichuris trichiura 2.6% vs 3.3%, p = 0.0009. Conclusion:
This study outlines that the prevalence of vernal keratoconjunctivitis was 7.2%
and 33.1% of children attending for vernal keratoconjunctivitis in school
children had a positive skin prick test to at least one allergen, in particular
for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Blomia tropicalis and cockroach.
The most common intestinal parasitic infestation was Ascaris lumbricoides, Ancylostoma duodenale, Anguillule and Trichuris trichiura.