CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In Argentina, the taxonomic composition and distribution of intestinal parasites in human populationsdifferdepending on climatic, geographic and socio-economic factors of a particular area. The aim of the present study was to determine prevalence of intestinal parasitism caused by geohelminths in children of Argentina according to biogeographical studied regionsfeatures. Serial fecal samples of 3533 children of both sexes up to 14 yearsold were analyzed. They were grouped into two ranges of age ( 6 years old). This study was performed in different locations in Buenos Aires (BA), Corrientes (CO), Chubut (CH), Entre Ríos (ER), La Pampa (LP), Mendoza (ME), Misiones (MI) y Salta (SA).Data was processed with Epi Info 7. Nine percent of the total population analyzed (310/3533) were parasitized by at least one geohelminth, such as Ancylostomids (4,7%),Strongyloidesstercoralis (3,3%), Ascarislumbricoides(2,5%) and Trichuristrichiura (0,7%),which were more frequent among children older than 6 years old. Sex differences were nonsignificant. The highest prevalence of geohelminthswas observed in MI (23,3%), followed by CO (6,7%), BA (5,7%), ER (0,75%) and ME (0,7%). Geohelminthswere not foundin CH, LP and SA. Ascaris lumbricoides was highest in BA and CO (5%) followed by MI (2,6%) and ME (0,3%). In MI, S.stercoralis and Ancylostomids showed a higher value than in BA(11,1% vs. 0,2%) and ME (16,2% vs. 0,4%), respectively.In BA, the presence of A. lumbricoides was associated to T. trichiura. In MI, S. stercoralis was associated to A. lumbricoides and Ancylostomids. The differences observed in the distribution of the geohelminths could be caused by environmental humidity and temperature, as well as to the soil type where eggs and larvae develop, between other factors. In Argentina, the distribution and prevalence of geohelminths fluctuate, being possible to estimate a multiplicity of causal factors of these infections.

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