Prevalence of Enteroparasites, Rotavirus and Adenovirus in Apparently Healthy Children

• Main Authors: Zulbey Rivero de R, Adriana Maldonado I., Angela Bracho M., María Castellanos S., Yessica Torres, Luciana Costa-León, Angie Méndez V., Lideivis Márquez A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Universidad del Zulia,Facultad de Medicina,Departamento de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Tropicales 2009
• Subjects: Niños; Enteroparásitos; Rotavirus; Adenovirus; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/a442f5ac67e84905acdf1bd618d91d51

To determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites, rotavirus and adenovirus in apparently healthy children, a parasitological study of 101 fecal samples from persons between 2 months and 14 years from both sexes was performed, as well as a virological study of 70 samples of less than 5 years of age. For each fecal specimen, a direct coproparasitological examination was performed, with Formol – Ether concentration and Modified Zielh-Nielsen tincture techniques was made. To determine the Rotavirus and Adenovirus, the immunoenzymatic assay technique (ELISA) was used. The Ji-square (c2) and the Z test were used for statistical analysis. A high percentage of people with parasites was found (85.15%). The most frequent protozoan species were: Blastocystis hominis (52.47%), Giardia lamblia (26.73.%) and Entamoeba coli (20.79%); among the helminthes were Trichuris trichiura (50.49%), Ascaris lumbricoides (48.51%) and Strongyloides stercoralis (7.92%). Rotavirus frequency was 2.86%, while Adenovirus infection was absent. The high prevalence of parasites demonstrates unhealthy conditions in the community; despite these, the opposite occurred regarding the virus being studied. Perhaps the acquisition of antibodies through maternal lactation influenced the Rotovirus percentages, whereas development of antibodies at an early age probably influenced the enteric Adenovirus.