Screening for parasite infections in immigrant children from low-income countries

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• 作者：Moncef Belhassen-Garc&iacute ; a^a ; ^{mbelhassen@hotmail.com} ; Javier Pardo-Lled&iacute ; as^b ; Luis Pé ; rez del Villar^c ; Virginia Velasco-Tirado^d ; Mar&iacute ; a Siller Ruiz^e ; Miguel Cordero-Sá ; nchez^a ; Belen Vicente^f ; Sara Herná ; ndez Egido^e ; Juan Luis Muñ ; oz Bellido^g ; Antonio Muro^f
• 关键词：Parasite ; Helminth infection ; Child ; Immigrants ; Imported infections
• 刊名：Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：35
• 期：1
• 页码：27-32
• 全文大小：705 K
• 卷排序：35

文摘

In Spain, minors represent approximately 20% of the immigration flow. Many of these immigrants come from countries in the tropics and sub-tropics where intestinal parasitic infections caused by helminths and protozoa are one of the major causes of human disease. The main objective of the present work was to describe parasite infections in a group of immigrant children.MethodsA prospective evaluation was performed in 373 minors from Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and Latin America. Details were collected from the medical records and physical examination. Urine, stool and peripheral blood samples were obtained for serological and routine laboratory tests. Direct and indirect parasitological tests were also performed.ResultsAt least 1 parasitic disease was diagnosed in 176 (47.1%) immigrant children, while 77 (20.6%) minors were infected with two or more parasites. The number of parasites was highest in children from Sub-Saharan Africa compared with the rest of the areas of origin (p < .001), and in children from urban areas compared with those from rural areas (OR 1.27 [1.059–1.552], p = .011). The most frequent causes of multiple parasite infection were filariasis plus strongyloidiasis and filariasis plus schistosomiasis. Intestinal parasite infection was diagnosed in 38 cases (13.8%). Logistic regression analysis revealed that for each month of stay, the probability of a positive finding in the stool sample decreased by 0.02% [β = −0.020, (p = .07)].ConclusionsThe high infection rates of parasite diseases in immigrant children point to the need for screening protocols for certain infectious diseases in these children according to their country of origin and their length of residence in Spain.