PREVALENCIA DE PARASITOSIS INTESTINALES EN PACIENTES DEL ESTADO LARA, VENEZUELA, DURANTE LOS A OS 2008-2010.

The aim of this research was to study the frequency of intestinal parasites in patients from three communities belonging to the state of Lara, Venezuela. A rural community, Miracuy, Andrés Eloy Blanco municipality, a suburban community, Agua Viva, Palavecino municipality and a third community (control group) consisting of samples made of patients from Barquisimeto, a city in the Iribarren municipality of the state of Lara. After the application of the coprological techniques to each stool sample, a total of 503 samples was obtained. From those samples, 35,8% belonged to the urban group, 48,9% to the suburban group and 15,3% to the rural one. The group with the highest proportion of intestinal parasites was the rural one (80,5%). The most common parasites were the protozoa, being Blastocystis hominis the most prevalent in the three groups, followed by Giardia lamblia and Endolimax nana. Among helminths, Ascaris lumbricoides was the most common metazoan, followed by Trichuris trichiura. It is considered that the high prevalence rates in these parasitic diseases are associated with lack of information, as well as living conditions in marginal and rural population, including the lack of enforcement of hygiene, health education, adequate water storage, poor sewage systems and garbage disposal, among others. Funded by UCLA project CDCHT-013-ME-2008.