Intestinal parasites caused by geohelminths in children from Argentina

COCIANCIC P ; ZONTA ML ; GARRAZA M ; NAVONE GT

Mar del Plata

Congreso; X Congreso de Protozoología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Protozoología

In Argentina, the taxonomic composition and distribution of intestinal parasites in human populations differ depending on climatic, geographic and socio-economic factors of a particular area. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitism caused by geohelminths in children of Argentina according to biogeographical features of studied regions. Serial fecal samples of 3533 children of both sexes up to 14 years old were analyzed. They were grouped into two ranges of age (≤ 5 and ≥ 6 years old). This study was performed in different localities 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%), Strongyloides stercoralis (3.3%), Ascaris lumbricoides (2.5%) and Trichuris trichiura (0.7%), which were more frequent among children older than 6 years old (p˂0.01). Sex differences were nonsignificant. The highest prevalence of geohelminths was observed in MI (23.3%), followed by CO (6.7%), BA (5.7%), ER (0.75%) and ME (0.7%) (p