Enteroparasites and malnutrition in hospitalized children, Guarapuava, State of Paraná, Brazil - DOI: 10.4025/actascihealthsci.v28i2.1064

Abstract

High prevalence of Ascaris infection in young children led to intensive studies in many countries focusing on its effect on nutritional status. However, few works described the number of hospitalized children with intestinal parasitic infection in different places. These data prompted us to investigate the prevalence of hospitalized children with enteroparasite in three hospitals at Guarapuava city, State of Paraná, associating degree of infection, age, sex and nutritional conditions. The nutritional state of the children was evaluated by anthropometric measurements adopted by the World Health Organization, using as standard reference the curve adopted by the National Center of Health Statistic. The intestinal parasitic infection represented 32.14% of hospitalized children, and the majority was between 0 and 3 years of age. Moreover, the malnourished children were more hospitalized with enteroparasites and Ascaris-infection aggravate compared with nourished children. In conclusion, the results suggest that the malnutrition is an aggravating factor to the susceptibility to enteroparasite infections