Factors Associated With Occurrence of Cysticercosis Among Wamena People’s, at Jayawijaya District, Papua Province, In 2002

Abstract

Cysticercosis is a disease caused by the larva of Taenia solium, the pig tapeworm, whereas taeniasis solium is caused by the adult worm, which lives in the small human intestines. The prevalence of taeniasis/cysticercosis in Indonesia varies from 1.0% to 42.7% and until now is found predominantly in three provinces ;i.e. Bali, North Sumatera and Papua. The highest prevalence was found in Papua during the year 1997 (42,7%). This case-control study was designed for finding factors in connection with the existing cysticercosis in Sub-district Wamena, District Jawawijaya. The number of cases consisted of all patients suffering from cysticercosis aged more than 8 years, found by questionaires during a survey for Taeniasis, Cysticercosis and Neurocysticercosis, conducted by the team from January till February 2002 and the control group consisted of individuals without cysticercosis during the survey. The diagnosis of cysticercosis was determined with ELISA by antibody detection of the parasites in the serum of both groups. Among the total number of variables several factors were found significantly associated with the existence of cysticercosis after calculation as a whole i.e. washing hands (OR 4.9 95%CI:2.55-9.61), profession (OR 2.11 95%CI:1.14-3.91), frequency of bathing (OR 2.59 95%CI:1.31-5.13), source of clean water (OR 2.41 95%CI:1.31- 4.44) and sanitation (OR 6.25 95%CI:3.14-12.44). Community health education is recommended on topics such as the habit of washing hands, bathing with clean water and using standard toilets. It is suggested that the local government provides clean water facilities and general sanitation facilities.

Keywords

• Taenia solium
• Papua
• washing hands
• source of clean water
• health education