Taenia solium taeniasis and neurocysticercosis in a Mexican rural family.

A case of neurocysticercosis in a six-year-old Mexican boy and a case of Taenia solium taeniasis in his five-year-old brother are reported. Neurocysticercosis was suspected based on clinical findings and was confirmed by computed tomography scanning. A parasitologic examination with zinc-sulfate flotation and formalin-ether sedimentation techniques was carried out on the whole family, and revealed Taenia sp. eggs in three stool samples from the five-year-old boy. The entire family agreed to undergo chemotherapy with niclosamide, but only the child passing taeniid eggs eliminated T. solium. No additional taeniasis cases were found in an examination of 20% of the village population, using the same parasitologic techniques. The results of an ELISA using cysticercus antigens were negative for the boy with neurocysticercosis, for other family members, and for 24 village volunteers, but were positive for the T. solium tapeworm carrier. It was concluded that in this family, person-to-person transmission of the tapeworm occurred due to poor living conditions and hygiene.

[Taeniasis, amebiasis and other intestinal parasitosis in school age children from Michoacan State, Mexico]. / Teniasis, amibiasis y otras parasitosis intestinales en niños de edad escolar del Estado de Michoacán, México.

92.3% schoolchildren aged 6-13 years of a mexican rural village, suspected foci of Taenia solium cysticercosis were screened for intestinal parasites with the main purpose to know the infection rate by taeniasis. An stool sample was collected to schoolchildren of the village and 95.4% of a urban private school as comparative group. Laboratory examinations were performed with the most accurate technics, included microscopies with an ocular micrometer. The general parasitation rate was 4 times higher in the rural village, but the percentages of Taenia spp. infection were 0.6% both of them. Entamoeba histolytica was observed 1.8% and 7.2% in the city and rural village, respectively. All the cases with taeniasis passed T. saginata after treatment with niclosamide. Negative results were obtained with the same chemotherapy in a randomly selected group of 112 schoolchildren which previous stool examination was reported negative. Neither taeniasis were demonstrated in 94 adult persons. These data are suggestive of the great variability on the transmission rates of T. solium cysticercosis in endemic areas and illustrate the faced methodological problems to confirm the diagnosis of taeniasis. By other hand support the hypothesis that estimates of infection rates with E. histolytica have been overdiagnosed in the country. Taeniasis-cysticercosis; schoolchildren; Taenia saginata; amebiasis.

[Characteristics of drug acquisition in Morelia (Michoacán), Mexico]. / Características de la adquisición de medicamentos en Morelia (Michoacán, México).

This cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out in Morelia, Mexico, to find out the extend to which the public was buying essential drugs and other pharmaceuticals whose sale is prohibited or strictly regulated in other countries, and to determine the magnitude of the practice of self-medication. Customers buying drugs at 54 pharmacies were interviewed during peak shopping hours. The mode of acquisition of the drugs was classified as self-medication, medical prescription, or prescription from pharmacy salesperson, and the drugs were grouped as essential or nonessential. Products that are prohibited or greatly restricted in other countries were also identified. The most frequently bought products were analgesics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, vitamins, broad-spectrum antibiotics, steroids, cold and flu medications, narrow-spectrum antibiotics, and benzodiazepines. Of 1388 products sold, 394 (28.4%) appear on the list of essential drugs. The mode of acquisition was self-medication for 51.4% of the sales, medical prescription for 35.6%, and recommendation of a pharmacy employee for 13%. In addition, 14.3% of the products bought were prohibited or restricted in other countries. The results highlighted the need for greater precision in the General Health Law of Mexico with regard to regulation of drug sales. The results also imply the need for other actions, namely, educational campaigns directed to the general population to discourage self-medication; Strengthening of coordination between government and the pharmaceutical industry; improvement in the availability of and information on generic drugs; and modification of pharmacological training programs.