[Cross-sectional study of intestinal parasites and Chagas' disease in the Municipality of Novo Airão, State of Amazonas, Brazil]

Cad Saude Publica. 1999 Jul-Sep;15(3):497-504. doi: 10.1590/s0102-311x1999000300006.
[Article in Portuguese]

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was performed on the residents of one in every ten households in the town of Novo Airão, in the northern meso-region of the State of Amazonas, 250 kilometers from Manaus by riverboat. A family cluster sample of 89 dwellings was studied. A stool sample was requested from each of the inhabitants for examination using the Lutz sedimentation and Baermann-Moraes-Coutinho techniques, and blood was taken by venous puncture for Trypanosoma cruzi Elisa antibody testing and immunofluorescence. From a total of 316 stool samples, 87.6% had one or more parasites: Ascaris lumbricoides (35.1%), Entamoeba histolytica (29.1%), Giardia lamblia (17.4%), and other parasites with lower prevalence rates. These results were directly correlated with lack of sanitation and clean water supply. Of the 346 sera examined, 16 (4.6%) were reactive to T. cruzi antibodies, but only three showed a correlation between this result and human contact with wild triatomines, known locally as "piassava lice".

Publication types

  • English Abstract
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Animals
  • Brazil / epidemiology
  • Chagas Disease / epidemiology*
  • Chagas Disease / parasitology
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Eukaryota / isolation & purification
  • Feces / parasitology
  • Female
  • Helminths / isolation & purification
  • Humans
  • Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / epidemiology*
  • Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / parasitology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Sanitation
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Water Supply / analysis