ABSTRACT
Objetivo: Estimar la prevalencia de enteroparásitos y su comportamiento por edades en niños ingresados durante un periodo de cinco meses (enero-mayo) en el hospital Pediátrico Universitario del Cerro, en La Habana, Cuba. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio observacional descriptivo de corte transversal en el que se recogieron tres muestras de heces para exámenes coproparasitológicos y datos de interés clínico y epidemiológico por cuestionarios. Resultados: Giardia lamblia fue el protozoo más frecuente (31,7%), especialmente en los servicios de Gastroenterología (p0,05). Conclusiones: Se recomienda la búsqueda sistemática de estos agentes parasitarios en los niños ingresados con diarreas, para un mejor conocimiento de las enteroparasitosis en la población pediátrica, y la implementación oportuna de medidas de control.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and their behavior according to age. Methods: Adescriptive cross sectional survey was carried out in admitted patients and three faecal samples were collected for each child and were examined by parasitological techniques. Clinical and epidemiological data were too collected with questionnaires. Results: Giardia lamblia was the most frequent parasite isolated (31,7%), in special in diarrhea wards (p<0.05). Parasitic and commensal infections increased with age (p<0.01); and children aged more than five years showed the higher percentages (45,6%) (p<0.01). G. lamblia and Blastocystis spp. were found with a major frequency in preschool and school children; while Cryptosporidium spp. was found only in preschoolers. Abdominal pain was found in higher frequency in children infected with parasites (p<0,01), followed by anal itching, antecedents of shedding parasites (p<0,01), and anorexia (p<0,05). No statistical differences were found with the rest of symptoms. Conclusions: The systematic searching of these parasitic agents is recommended in children admitted with diarrhea, and this action would increase the knowledge of parasitic infections in our pediatric population and the implementation of opportune measures for the control.
Subject(s)
Male , Female , Humans , Child , Adolescent , Blastocystis , Child, Hospitalized , Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic , Giardia lamblia , Epidemiology, Descriptive , Observational Study , Cross-Sectional StudiesABSTRACT
Giardiasis is a disease with worldwide distribution, although its prevalence differs from country to country. In order to investigate the clinical pattern of giardiasis in in-patient children, a case-control study was carried out. In-patient children who had Giardia lamblia infection were compared with non Giardia-infected children, focusing only on 4 clinical manifestations: diarrhoea, abdominal pain, asthenia and vomiting. In multivariable analysis, abdominal pain (odds ratio [OR] 4.71, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 2.66-8.32) and asthenia (OR 3.30, 95% CI 1.16-9.37) had positive and independent associations with Giardia infection. The present study supports the potential role of G. lamblia in abdominal pain in children who attend- and are admitted- to a hospital in Havana City, and highlights the importance to keep abdominal pain and asthenia in mind in hospital admitted children in the event of an association with an evocative epidemiological context.
