A critical perspective

Intestinal parasites usually inhabit the gastro- intestinal tract during part or the whole of their life cycle. Parasitological analysis of foodstuffs and stool samples was done at Kisii Provincial Hospital.. The prevalence of intestinal parasites was significantly high in the meat samples stored in the wire mesh compared to those stored in the refrigerator (2 = 37.628, df = 2, p=0.000). There was a significantly high prevalence of intestinal parasites on meat samples whose surfaces had houseflies (2 =65.737, df = 2, P=0.000). This study has shown that there were risks of acquiring pathogenic intestinal parasitic infections from various sources with meat posing the highest risk of intestinal parasite transmission (75.9 %), followed by vegetables (65.5 %) and food handlers (41.1%). The risk of infections by intestinal parasites from various sources indicated a statistically significant difference between various sources (2 = 214.966, df = 2, p<0.00).