Children from a rural region in The Chiapas Highlands, Mexico, show an increased risk of stunting and intestinal parasitoses when compared with urban children

Abstract

Background:The state of Chiapas has held the first place of extreme poverty in Mexico. The majority of Chiapas' municipalities are inhabited by marginalized, indigenous populations, who usually present diarrhea of unknown etiology. We evaluated the nutritional status, intestinal parasites, and common bacterial pathogens, including DEC (diarrheagenic Escherichia coli) strains, in 178 children under five years of age with a high (rural) and a moderate (urban) degree of marginalization. Methods: Z-scores for anthropometric indexes from the children were obtained, whereas intestinal parasites were investigated by using a direct coproparasitoscopic analysis and a concentration method. DEC strains were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The stunting prevalence in children from the rural and urban regions was 79.8 and 7.5%, respectively. Only children from rural municipalities were parasitized (72.6%), being Ascaris lumbricoides and Entamoeba histolytica/Entamoeba dispar the most prevalent parasites (57.1 and 38.1%, respectively). More than half of the children presented moderated ascariasis. Besides Giardia intestinalis, these parasites were associated with stunting. The prevalence of DEC strains was similar in both regions. Conclusions: Only children from the Chiapas Highlands (rural zone) exhibited high prevalences of stunting and intestinal parasites. A reevaluation of social development programs should be in place to address stunting and intestinal parasitoses, mainly in rural regions of Chiapas, to avoid adverse functional consequences on these children.

Captive Green Iguana Carries Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Pathotypes

“…Reptiles may be in closer contact with human feces because of the crowdedness of an urban setting. Data supporting this hypothesis includes our own observations reporting the isolation of DEC's (13.8%) from the feces of 94 children from Chiapa de Corzo, a locality belonging to the metropolitan region (45). Our findings agree with those by Sylvester et al (21) whom demonstrated an association between the prevalence of E. coli carriage and certain geographic regions.…”

Reduced infant rhesus macaque growth rates due to environmental enteric dysfunction and association with histopathology in the large intestine

“…1 ). Several pathogens identified among the rhesus macaques are associated with human growth stunting and include Campylobacter 8 – 10 , 28 – 30 , Shigella 29 , 31 , enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) 28 , 29 , Cryptosporidium 29 , 31 , Entamoeba histolytica 32 , 33 , and Giardia 29 , 34 . Although diarrheal disease is relatively common among outdoor-housed non-human primates (NHP) 16 – 18 , 27 , none of the 1-month-old infants ( n = 80) presented with clinical diarrhea at the time of screening for enteric pathogens.…”

Epidemiology, species composition and genetic diversity of tetra- and octonucleated Entamoeba spp. in different Brazilian biomes

“…in economically vulnerable communities with poor health infrastructure in different regions of Brazil. Amebiasis is a water-and food-borne disease with strong socio-environmental determinants, and its distribution is poverty-related and heterogeneous among human populations [20][21][22] and remains endemic in many Brazilian regions.…”