Serological surveillance of parasitic zoonoses in 13 highlands regions of Peru: Period 2016-2019.

OBJECTIVES.: Motivation for the study. To understand the characteristics and distribution of the main parasitic zoonoses in Peru and to generate data for decision making in surveillance, prevention and control. Main findings. These parasitic zoonoses are distributed in areas of extreme poverty in the central and southern highlands of Peru. Fascioliasis seropositivity was found to be higher than for echinococcosis and cysticercosis. In addition, sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle habits influence the transmission of these zoonoses. Implications. An active search for these zoonoses should be carried out in other risk areas with similar epidemiological characteristics to determine the prevalence of each of these zoonoses and implement multisectoral prevention and control programs. . To determine seropositivity to anti-IgG antibodies against Echinococcus granulosus, Fasciola hepatica and Taenia solium cysticercus infection and to describe the characteristics of the infected patients in 13 regions of the Peruvian highlands between 2016 and 2019.

MATERIALS AND METHODS.: Cross-sectional, observational study, in which we analyzed 7811 epidemiological records of laboratory-based surveillance of parasitic zoonoses from 2016 to 2019. Diagnosis was established by detecting IgG type anti-E. granulosus, F. hepatica and T. solium cysticercus antibodies using native antigens by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Immunoblot. We evaluated the difference in the frequency of the cases according to identified characteristics using Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS.: Seropositivity was 7.9% for fascioliasis, 4.9% for cystic echinococcosis, and 2.3% for T. solium cysticercus. These rates were higher in Cerro de Pasco for cystic echinococcosis (24.5%), in Ayacucho for T. solium cysticercus (4.5%) and in Puno for fascioliasis (40.6%). Regarding the sociodemographic characteristics, we found a statistically significant difference in the frequency of cases for all zoonoses according to age group, occupation, and region of residence. We also found a difference with the consumption of vegetables in emollients, and between clinical-epidemiological characteristics and having a family history of parasitic zoonoses.

CONCLUSIONS.: From the 7811 samples, we found that these parasitic zoonoses are distributed in 13 regions of the Peruvian highlands, and represent a major health problem, with frequencies that change according to different characteristics.