Abstract

LONDONO ALVAREZ, Juan Carlos; HERNANDEZ, Aldo Polo  and  VERGARA SANCHEZ, Consuelo. Intestinal parasitism in home day care of two municipality of departamento del Atlántico, Northern of Colombia. Bol Mal Salud Amb [online]. 2010, vol.50, n.2, pp.251-260. ISSN 1690-4648.

In order to determine the intestinal parasite population of children from 2 and 6 years old, an epidemiological cross section study was done during January to June 2004, at the community homes in the Colombian Wellbeing Family Institute (Instituto Colombiano del Bienestar Familiar), at the Santo Tomas and Galapa municipalities, Atlántico, Colombia. The procedure was achieved by wet mounting in saline and iodine solutions, also an ether-formalin concentration technique was employed and then the coloration was done with the Ziehl Neelsen technique. A tentative data analysis and a Chi square (χ²) test determined a significant difference of intestinal parasite prevalence in each municipality and the risk factor with an odds ratio test. The results were as follows: the prevalence in Santo Tomas 82% and the most frequent intestinal parasite in the zone was Trichiuris trichiura with 39.8%. In Galapa, the prevalence was 72% and the most common parasite was Giardia duodenalis (37.3%). The Chi square (χ²) test (α = 0.05) showed significant difference between the municipalities and among the following parasites Ascaris lumbricoides, T. trichiura, Blastocystis hominis and Entamoeba coli. The principal risk factor was found to be the presence of intestinal parasite infections at the mother´s population level.

Keywords : Colombia; community homes; infant population; intestinal parasites; risk factors.