ASCARIASIS AND CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION

The present review will examine epidemiological perspectives and be co nfined mainly to the results of those field studies published since 19 75 in order to provide concrete scientific evidence of the effect of a scariasis on childhood malnutrition, particularly on growth. The field studies were done in many developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, using cross-sectional and intervention studies in which anthelmintics were employed, with different dosing frequency and foll ow-up periods ranging from 33 days to 2 years. In general, a better nu tritional status in terms of growth, lactose tolerance, vitamins A and C, and albumin levels were observed among Ascaris-free or treated tha n among Ascaris-infected or untreated children even in cross-sectional or non-randomized studies. More importantly, the improvement in weigh t or height after chemotherapeutic treatment was found to be significa nt particularly in those randomized controlled studies with an initial ly high prevalence of ascariasis and malnutrition, a low prevalence of other intestinal parasites, repetitive and regular treatments of chil dren with tetramisole, levamisole or pyrantel, within a period of 12 o r 24 months. Reasons for failures to detect improved growth in some st udies are provided. This review strongly indicates that A. lumbricoide s infection definitely retards childhood growth.