Parasitic prevalence in a suburban school of Famailla, Tucuman-Argentina

DIB, JULIÁN; OQUILLA, JUANA; LAZARTE, SILVIA GRACIELA; GONZALEZ, SILVIA NELINA

ISRN Microbiology

International Scholarly Research Network

Lugar: New York; Año: 2012 p. 1 - 4

2090-7486

Prevalence of intestinal parasites was investigated in rural primary schoolchildren in Famaillá city, Tucumán province, Argentina. Stool specimens from 149 school-children were collected. The prevalence rate of intestinal parasite infections was 86.6%. No significant differences were observed in the distribution by age or by sex. Blastocystis hominis was the most commonly found protozoan parasite (54.4%), followed by Entamoeba coli (35.6%), Giardia lamblia (24.8%) and others (16.7%). Enterobius vermicularis was the most prevalent intestinal helminth (27.5%) followed by Ascaris lumbricoides (20.8%), Trichuris trichiura (12.8%) and others (5.4%). Most of the patients had polyparasitism (62.4%) and protozoan infections prevailed over heltminthic infections. These results show high rates of parasitism in the school children of Famaillá, which would be associated with socioeconomic factors and poor environmental sanitation condition in this area.