Background: Intestinal parasitism represents a public health problem that should be periodically assessed in each region. In the present paper, a study about prevalence of intestinal parasites, has been carried out in children from the natural region of the Guadalquivir Valley.
Methods: During the period 1994-1996, 1,917 children without symptoms, aging between 6 and 10, were studied by means of coprological analysis and Graham method, all of them living in 20 villages in the Guadalquivir valley.
Results: The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitism have been of 27.12%. The reported parasites and their prevalence are as follows: Enterobius vermicularis (20.44%), Giardia lamblia (5.05%), Entamoeba coli (2.45%), Endolimax nana (1.61%), Entamoeba histolytica (0.31%), Entamoeba hartmanni (0.05%), Iodamoeba bütschlii (0.05%).
Conclusions: The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites is similar to that found in other spanish region, if only a little bit more favourable probably due to the long lasting drought and the improvements in health resources, no geohelminths have been detected unlike other protozoan infections, giardiasis maintains a relatively high prevalence.