Policy paper-fixing health care (Zoonotic disease) Research Paper

Policy -fixing health care (Zoonotic disease) - Research Paper Example stercoralis (3%). The overall prevalence of D. immitis is 25.3% (from www.EMERGING%20PARASITES%20OF%20PUBLIC%20HEALTH%20SIGNIFICANCE ). Evaluation of the parasite burden of Tricuris tricuria in a St. Lucian community showed most of the community having a low burden of the parasite, while few members of the community had a heavy burden. 84% of t those harbouring the parasite were found to be children in the age group two to fifteen years. Children of the same age group constituted 87% of those individuals having hundred or more worms (Bundy et al, 1987). Zoonotic burden in Jamaica is to a significant extent due to the close interaction of humans and pets like dogs. 73% of the households in Jamaica maintain pet dogs. Assessment through faecal examination showed that 58% of the animals were infected with one or more of the eight helminths distributed as Uncinaria stenocecephala 26%, Ancylostoma sp. 23%, Trichuris vulpis 9%, Toxocara canis 8%, Spirocera lupi 6%, Strongyloides sp. 6%, Appphallus sp. 4%, and taenids 1% (Robinson, Thompson & Lindo, 1989). The results of the study into the Annotto Bay community in the Parish of St. Mary, Jamaica showed that 64.7% of the stool specimens of the community had one or more of the helminth species and that there was a marked age dependence demonstrated with the helminth infestation occurring most commonly in the pre-school children (Win, 1996). Screw worms or Cochliomyia hominivorax infestation in Jamaica in 1998 was 25,000. Since then an eradication program has led to its diminishing infestation in Jamaica. Between 2004 and 2007 the annual average infestation of screw worms had dipped to 2,000 and in 2008 the infestation had dropped to 452, which included twenty infestations in humans (Reid, 2008). In 2007 UNAIDS sponsored a study into the prevalence of intestinal parasites in children infected with HIV/Aids. The results of