Enteric parasites and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli in children from Cañazas County, Veraguas Province, Panama

Elena Jiménez Gutiérrez, Vanessa Pineda, Jose E. Calzada, Richard L. Guerrant, Jones B.Lima Neto, Relana C. Pinkerton, Azael Saldaña

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the height-for-Age z-scores (HAZ), and the prevalence of intestinal inflammation, gastrointestinal infections with parasites, and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) in rural Panamanian children. Stool microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for EAEC detected Giardia lamblia (32%, 32 of 100) and EAEC (13%, 11 of 87) in the study participants, respectively. Anthropometric analyses showed that those children who were > 12 months of age had lower HAZ scores (mean of-1.449) than the reference population. As a group, the children in the study 1 to 5 years of age did not show recovery from the previously mentioned decline in terms of their HAZ. The HAZ means of the children infected with G. lamblia, EAEC, and Ascaris lumbricoides were-1.49,-1.67, and-2.11, respectively. Furthermore, the study participants with A. lumbricoides and EAEC infections in the presence of lactoferrin showed another decrease of 0.19 and 0.13, respectively, in their HAZ means.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)267-272
Number of pages6
JournalAmerican Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume91
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Parasitology
  • Virology
  • Infectious Diseases

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