Parasitological Study on Fruits Sold in Huye Complex Market and Rango Local Market in Rwanda.

Background: Fruits are essential for good health and they form a major component of human diet. They are vital energy contributors that are depended upon all levels of human as food supplement or nutrients. Although they have all these benefits, when there are not handled with good hygiene they can transmit parasitic infections especially intestinal parasitic infections in the world including Rwanda. The study was conducted to determine the parasitological patterns on fruits purchased in "Huye complex market and Rango local market" in southern province of Rwanda.

Objective: To assess and identify the parasitological patterns on fruits purchased in Huye complex market and Rango local market in Southern Province of Rwanda.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was designed and 188 fruits were sampled from Huye complex market and Rango local market then washed by using normal saline and the suspension was centrifuged and the sedimentation was examined on a microscope. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 and MS Excel.

Results: The overall prevalence of all parasites obtained from the fruits was 52.65%, whereby the prevalence of all parasites in Rango local and Huye complex markets was 66.63% and 44.7%, respectively. The frequency of identified parasites' contamination was Ascaris Lumbricoides 44.44%, cysts of Giardia lamblia 24.24%, eggs of Trichuris trichura 10.1%, cysts of Entamoeba coli 17.17% and Entamoeba histolytica 4.04%.

Conclusion: The level of fruits contamination by pathogenic parasites remain high, hence regular health education on hygiene of fruit have to be increased to the population and continuous monitoring on sellers of fruits is required.