[Frequency of E. vermicularis in a rural school population of Quipile, Colombia, 2001].

OBJECTIVES

To study the prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis infection in children aged 3 to 14 years in a rural zone of the town of Quipile, Colombia.

METHODS

159 children from 14 villages, with a homogeneous distribution according to their degree of scholarity, were studied. The detection of Enterobius vermicularis eggs was done by the Graham method. The design was a cross-sectional descriptive study, for which a convenience non-probabilistic sampling was carried out. Fisher's exact test and chi 2 were performed for data analysis. Multivariate analysis by multiple correspondence was also carried out.

RESULTS

2.5% of the children were found to be infected with E. vermicularis and 5% with Ascaris lumbricoides. This frequency is low when compared to reports from other authors; one of the possible causes is the sampling method used.

CONCLUSIONS

Deficient sanitation conditions of the population studied as well as the low frequency of anal hygiene practices may represent behavioural risk factors which favour the transmission of this helminth.