Prevalencia de parasitismo intestinal y situación nutricional en escolares y adolescentes de Tunja

objective: to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitism and nutritional status in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 enrolled in public and private schools from urban tunja, colombia. materials and methods: this is a prevalence study made in 507 schoolchildren of tunja, included from february to december 2005. fecal sample was taken; also social, demographic and anthropometric data. tables of frequency and nutritional indicators were calculated by following the anthropometry who tables. results: the prevalence of intestinal parasites was 89.7 %. blastocistis hominis occurred in 67,9% of the children, entamoeba histolytica / entamoeba dispar in 8.66 %, giardia intestinalis, 7.82 %; trichuris trichiura, with 0.84 % and fasciola hepatica, with 0.28 %. hemoglobin showed normal average values for children and adolescents (hb: 14.7 ±-0.82 g/dl and 15.45±1.18 g/dl), respectively. chronic malnutrition was found in 21.6 % for boys and 34.3% for girls), 16.7 % of boys and 11.1 % of girls were overweight conclusions: given the current situation exist poliparasitism in children of tunja, and indicators of acute and chronic malnutrition are higher than the national total. according to the law , must be protected and campaigns should be made to eradicate these two scourges.