HERNANDEZ ALFARO, María del Carmen    PALACIOS MESA, Catalina. Intestinal parasitism in children from daycare centers of a municipality. []. , 18, 2, pp. 210-220. ISSN 1561-3194.

Introduction: intestinal parasitism is a major global health problem because of its high prevalence and universal distribution. It is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in infants and children around the world. Objective: to identify the prevalence of major intestinal parasitic species in daycare centers of La Palma. Method: an observational descriptive study was conducted during the months of October and November of 2012, in which 495 children were studied, attending the six daycare centers of La Palma Municipality. Three fresh fecal samples were collected from each child, on alternate days, and processed with direct parasitological methods and technical examination of Ritchie-Willis concentration. Results: 48.3% of the samples were parasitized, with a higher prevalence in the fifth year of life (58.8%), the male sex was the predominant one (54.8%). The most frequent species were Giardia lamblia (38.1%), Entamoeba (30.1%) and Enterobius vermicularis (19.2%). Polyparasitism was observed in 12.2% of the children, being the association of parasites Giardia lamblia shown in three combinations. Together with Enterobius vermicularis (37.2%), with histolytica Entamoeba (33.3%), and with the three of them at the same time (29.4%). Conclusions: about half of the children studied were parasitized; these results were more frequent after the fourth year of life, with a higher prevalence in male children and all parasitic species, with a predominance of protozoal infections, most often Giardia lamblia parasite associations in several cases.

: Parasitic intestinal diseases [epidemiology]; Parasitic intestinal diseases [prevention & control].

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