Abstract

Judith Lum Ndamukong-Nyanga*, Chrisantus Anye Akuma, Ngum Catherine Ndamukong, Desdemona Njabi Nji

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Fruits are a vital part of a balance diet. They add color, variety, and taste to our meals and are a good source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Fruits are of great importance for an adequate and balanced diet owing to the role they play in preventing many health related problems such as obesity, cancer and cardiac diseases. Buea has good cultivating land like apples, guava, pear, mangoes, pineapples, tomatoes and water melon. This is done during the rainy season or by irrigation during the dry season. Irrigation water is obtained from different sources like streams, rivers, and ponds which may be polluted with parasite eggs, cyst and larvae from animal and human feaces. Excreta polluted water is a health risk to both the farmers and the consumers who eat the produce fresh and without disinfection. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional one involving 160 fruit samples sold in the markets streets of Buea and consumed by the population. Data was collected from March to June 2016. Ten different types of fruits were sampled for the presence of parasites. These included Tomato (Lycoperisicon esculentum), Orange (Citrus sinensis), Mango (Mangifera indica), Pawpaw (arica papaya), Pineapple (ananas cosmosus) Water melon (citrullus lanatus), Apple (Aberia cattra), Banana (dusa accuminata) Cucumber, Avogado. The zinc sulphate floatation technique was used for concentrating the cysts and ova of the parasites. The sedimentation method was also done using normal saline and iodine. Data was analysed using SPSS version 17.0. Results and discussion: A total of 21 (13.12%) fruits were contaminated. Highest contamination was found in mangoes 6(30%), followed by tomatoes 5(20%) while bananas, apples and avocados 0 (00 %) had the lowest contamination. E. histolytica recorded significanty (p=0.002) highest prevalence (17, 10.6%), followed by Ascaris lumbricoides with 5(3.1%) while Trichuris trichuria was the least with 1(0.6%). Yeast cells were seen to contaminate the fruit samples with the highest prevalence being on water melon 4(40%), banana 3(15%) and cucumber 2(20%).