Co-parasitism of intestinal protozoa and Schistosoma japonicum in a rural community in the Philippines
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Author(s)
Weerakoon, Kosala Gayan
Gordon, Catherine A
Williams, Gail M
Cai, Pengfei
Gobert, Geoffrey N
Olveda, Remigio M
Ross, Allen G
Olveda, David U
McManus, Donald P
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2018
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Background:
Co-parasitism is a frequent occurrence in impoverished communities in the tropics resulting in a considerable disease burden. While there are extensive reports of intestinal helminthiases, including schistosomiasis japonica, the occurrence and extent of diseases caused by intestinal protozoa (IP) have yet to be investigated in depth in the Philippines. We present a detailed analysis of polyparasitism in a rural community of Northern Samar, focusing on co-infections of IP with Schistosoma japonicum.
Methods:
A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in 2015 across 18 barangays (villages) endemic for S. ...
View more >Background: Co-parasitism is a frequent occurrence in impoverished communities in the tropics resulting in a considerable disease burden. While there are extensive reports of intestinal helminthiases, including schistosomiasis japonica, the occurrence and extent of diseases caused by intestinal protozoa (IP) have yet to be investigated in depth in the Philippines. We present a detailed analysis of polyparasitism in a rural community of Northern Samar, focusing on co-infections of IP with Schistosoma japonicum. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in 2015 across 18 barangays (villages) endemic for S. japonicum in Northern Samar, the Philippines to assess the burden of human schistosomiasis and IP infections. Faecal samples collected from 412 participants from the 18 barangays were included in the final molecular analysis. A multiplex quantitative PCR assay was developed and used for the detection of Blastocystis spp., Entamoeba histolytica, Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia duodenalis in stool samples. The findings were combined with previous results of droplet digital PCR diagnosis of individuals from the same 18 barangays infected with S. japonicum determined using the same stool samples for analysis. Results: Mean age of the study participants was 40.3 years (95% CI: 38.8–41.8) with 53% (n = 218) being males. Prevalence of S. japonicum (74.5%) and Blastocystis spp. (58.7%) was significantly higher compared to other infections, with E. histolytica having the lowest prevalence (12.1%). A majority of individuals were infected with more than one parasite with two infections being most common (n = 175, 42.5%). The prevalence of individuals with two parasites was significantly higher than all others with 27.9% (n = 115) subjects harbouring a single parasite species. Of individuals with two infections, S. japonicum and Blastocystis spp. were the most common combination (n = 110, 62.9%). Examining age within the population, 58.5% (n = 38) of school-aged children and 60.1% (n = 14) of women of child bearing age harboured at least two parasite species. Conclusions: The study revealed that polyparasitism with IP infections and schistosomiasis japonica is highly prevalent in individuals in Northern Samar which likely contributes to the significant public health and socio-economic burden suffered by this population. More generally, the findings are of relevance when considering implementation of integrated control strategies for intestinal parasites.
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View more >Background: Co-parasitism is a frequent occurrence in impoverished communities in the tropics resulting in a considerable disease burden. While there are extensive reports of intestinal helminthiases, including schistosomiasis japonica, the occurrence and extent of diseases caused by intestinal protozoa (IP) have yet to be investigated in depth in the Philippines. We present a detailed analysis of polyparasitism in a rural community of Northern Samar, focusing on co-infections of IP with Schistosoma japonicum. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in 2015 across 18 barangays (villages) endemic for S. japonicum in Northern Samar, the Philippines to assess the burden of human schistosomiasis and IP infections. Faecal samples collected from 412 participants from the 18 barangays were included in the final molecular analysis. A multiplex quantitative PCR assay was developed and used for the detection of Blastocystis spp., Entamoeba histolytica, Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia duodenalis in stool samples. The findings were combined with previous results of droplet digital PCR diagnosis of individuals from the same 18 barangays infected with S. japonicum determined using the same stool samples for analysis. Results: Mean age of the study participants was 40.3 years (95% CI: 38.8–41.8) with 53% (n = 218) being males. Prevalence of S. japonicum (74.5%) and Blastocystis spp. (58.7%) was significantly higher compared to other infections, with E. histolytica having the lowest prevalence (12.1%). A majority of individuals were infected with more than one parasite with two infections being most common (n = 175, 42.5%). The prevalence of individuals with two parasites was significantly higher than all others with 27.9% (n = 115) subjects harbouring a single parasite species. Of individuals with two infections, S. japonicum and Blastocystis spp. were the most common combination (n = 110, 62.9%). Examining age within the population, 58.5% (n = 38) of school-aged children and 60.1% (n = 14) of women of child bearing age harboured at least two parasite species. Conclusions: The study revealed that polyparasitism with IP infections and schistosomiasis japonica is highly prevalent in individuals in Northern Samar which likely contributes to the significant public health and socio-economic burden suffered by this population. More generally, the findings are of relevance when considering implementation of integrated control strategies for intestinal parasites.
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Journal Title
INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF POVERTY
Volume
7
Funder(s)
NHMRC
Grant identifier(s)
APP1037304
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Subject
Clinical sciences not elsewhere classified
Clinical sciences
Epidemiology
Public health