Epidemiology of human hookworm infections among adult villagers in Hejiang and Santai Counties, Sichuan Province, China

Hookworm infection as well as other intestinal nematodiases are endemic to Sichuan Province in China. In order to research the prevalence and intensity of these infections we visited two villages in Hejiang County (southern Sichuan Province) and Santai County (northwestern Sichuan Province) between...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta tropica 1999-10, Vol.73 (3), p.243-249
Main Authors: Changhua, Liu, Xiaorong, Zhang, Dongchuan, Qiu, Shuhua, Xiao, Hotez, P.J., Defu, Zhen, Hulian, Zhen, Mingden, Li, Hainan, Ren, Bing, Zhan, Haichou, Xue, Hawdon, J., Zheng, Feng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Ancylostoma - isolation & purification
Ancylostomaduodenale
Ancylostomiases
Ancylostomiasis - drug therapy
Ancylostomiasis - epidemiology
Ancylostomiasis - parasitology
Animals
Antinematodal Agents - therapeutic use
Ascariasis - epidemiology
Ascariasis - parasitology
Biological and medical sciences
China - epidemiology
Diseases caused by nematodes
Epidemiology
Feces - parasitology
Female
Helminthic diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Male
Medical sciences
Necator americanus - isolation & purification
Necatoramericanus
Necatoriasis - drug therapy
Necatoriasis - epidemiology
Necatoriasis - parasitology
Parasite Egg Count
Parasitic diseases
Prevalence
Pyrantel - therapeutic use
Rural Health
Treatment
Trichuriasis - epidemiology
Trichuriasis - parasitology
Tropical medicine
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Summary:Hookworm infection as well as other intestinal nematodiases are endemic to Sichuan Province in China. In order to research the prevalence and intensity of these infections we visited two villages in Hejiang County (southern Sichuan Province) and Santai County (northwestern Sichuan Province) between July and October of 1997. Fecal examinations were performed on adult villagers over the age of 15 years (currently children under this age are dewormed annually with anthelmintic drugs). Among 310 residents of Lugao Village (Hejiang County), 87, 63 and 60% were infected with hookworm, Ascaris or Trichuris, respectively. The prevalence of hookworm determined to rise linearly with age ( r=0.97). High intensity infections with hookworm still occur in this region as 22% of the residents have over 3000 eggs per gram (PEG) of feces as determined by quantitative egg counts. The majority of these individuals harbored mixed infection with Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale, although the former predominated when adult hookworms were collected from 30 village residents treated with pyrantel pamoate. In contrast, among the 334 Xinjian villagers examined (Santai County) the majority harbored predominantly light hookworm infections—66.1% of the residents has less than 400 EPG by quantitative fecal examination and only 3.7% exhibited greater than 3000 EPG. Again, N. americanus was the predominant hookworm seen after worm expulsion. We have round that despite economic development which is occurring in some parts of China, significant hookworm infections and clinical hookworm anemia still exist in areas of Sichuan Province. In Hejiang County we found that the intensity of hookworm infection has actually risen within the last 10 years. Hookworm is a medical problem among the elderly in Sichuan.
ISSN:0001-706X
1873-6254
DOI:10.1016/S0001-706X(99)00035-2