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Enteroparasites in indigenous individuals from the Japrer? community, Zulia state, Venezuela

Abstract:

Parasitic diseases represent a medical, economic and social problem affecting all social classes, but mainly the lower socioeconomic strata. In order to determine the prevalence of enteroparasites in the indians from the Japrería community, in the Perijá mountain, Zulia State, Venezuela, 191 fecal samples corresponding to individuals of both sexes, aged 1 month to 86 years were processed. The samples were analyzed by the direct wet mount/lugol method and by the formol-ether concentration technique. The results showed demonstrated a high prevalence of enteroparasites (82.20%) and predominance of poliparasitism (78.98%), with associations between pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. A significant difference in susceptibility between the prevalence of parasites and sex was not observed (p>0.05). The most affected age group were young adults (20-39 years; 25.48%). The most frequent species of protozoa were Blastocystis hominis (46.07%), Entamoeba coli (42.93%) and the Entamoeba histolytica/Entamoeba dispar complex (34.03%). Among helminths, Ancylostomideos (30.89%), Ascaris lumbricoides (9.95%) and Hymenolepis nana (4.19%) occupied the first places. The increased presence of enteroparasites is related to the poor environmental conditions in this indigenous community. These results stress the importance of designing specific control programs to diminish the existing conditioning factors, which would have an impact in the reduction of the parasitic infections.