Abstract. The prevalence rate of ascariasis in primary school children in northern Jakarta, Indonesia varies from 60% to 90%. An association between helminthic infection and educational achievement has long been recognized. This study was carried out in the northern part of Jakarta among primary school children 6-8 years of age. Treatment of ascariasis and health education were used as the interventions. Before the interventions, basic data on socioeconomic status, epidemiology, infection with Ascaris lumbricoides, nutritional status, and cognitive function were collected. After the interventions, only data on infection with A. lumbricoides, nutritional status, and cognitive function were collected. The children were divided into five groups. Group I was given an anthelminthic (mebendazole), group II was provided with health education, group III was given an antihelminthic and provided with health education, group IV was given a placebo (controls), and group V consisted of egg-negative children, who also served as controls. Data from 336 students were analyzed by analysis of covariance. Parasitologic examinations showed a mean prevalence rate of 58.4% for A. lumbricoides infection in the pre-intervention children and a mean prevalence rate of 40.6% in the post-intervention children. Concerning nutritional status, approximately 80% of the children showed good scores in the pre-and post-treatment data, and only a small percentage (0.9-16.2%) showed mild or moderate malnutrition. No significant difference was found between the pre-and post-treatment nutritional status. The results of the cognitive test showed that the group treated with mebendazole showed significant improvement in the Colored Progressive Matrices and Coding test. Children also showed an improvement in their learning ability, concentration, and eye-hand coordination after five months of receiving this intervention.The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides infection in urban slum areas of Jakarta, Indonesia is high, especially in primary school children, in whom it ranges from 60% to 90% (Ismid IS and others, unpublished data). School children were reported to have the highest prevalences and intensities of these geohelminth infections, 1 which result in morbidity, malnutrition, and iron deficiency anemia. 2 An association between iron deficiency anemia and malnutrition in Indonesia has demonstrated their possible contribution to impaired cognitive function and educational achievement. 4 A correlation between helminthic infection and educational achievement has long been recognized. 5,6 However, it is unclear whether these relationships are causal or result from differences in socioeconomic status. 7 This paper reports the results of a study using an experimental design with two types of interventions, namely, the administration of an anthelmintic and health education. The objective of this study was to examine whether infection with A. lumbricoides in school children correlates with nutritional status and cognitive function. MATERIALS AND METHODSStudy...

The Schistosoma japonicum group and S. sinensium utilize intermediate snail hosts belonging to the genera Oncomelania and Tricula (Gastropoda: Pomatiopsidae). In the present study, partial sequences of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene from 7 subspecies of 0. hupensis, two species of Tricula (T bollingi and T humida) and 0. minima were examined to infer a phylogeny for these. Nucleotide differences among subspecies of 0. hupensis were less than 6.5% and among species from different genera, 10-12%. The phylogenetic tree obtained in this study indicates that 0. hupensis subspecies fell into four distinct clades ; that is, 0. h. quadrasi from the Philippines, 0. h. lindoensis from Indonesia, 0. h. hupensis from Yunnan, China and the remaining 5 subspecies (0. h. hupensis from other parts of China, 0. h. robertsoni from China, 0. h. formosana from Taiwan, 0. h. chiui from Taiwan and 0. h. nosophora from Japan). The phylogenetic tree also showed that 0. minima was placed as sister to all of the subspecies of 0. hupensis. Possible evolutionary relationships among the snail hosts were discussed.

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