Intestinal parasitic infections in children from marginalised Roma communities: prevalence and risk factors

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases 2024-06, Vol.24 (1), p.596-10, Article 596
• Main Authors: Štrkolcová, Gabriela, Fiľakovská Bobáková, Daniela, Kaduková, Michaela, Schreiberová, Andrea, Klein, Daniel, Halán, Miloš, Urbančíková, Ingrid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anemia; Animal cognition; Animals; Children; Children & youth; Children of minorities; Cognitive ability; Cognitive development; Colorectal diseases; Cough; Cross-Sectional Studies; Demographic aspects; Diarrhea; Disease prevention; Economic impact; Eggs; Epidemics; Feces - parasitology; Female; Food; Gastrointestinal diseases; Global health; Health aspects; Health complaints; Households; Humans; Hygiene; Hygienic standards; Infant; Infants; Infections; Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic - epidemiology; Intestinal parasites; Intestine; Living conditions; Male; Malnutrition; Marginalised Roma communities; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mortality; Parasites; Parasitic diseases; Parasitic infections; Pediatric research; Population; Population studies; Prevalence; Public health; Risk Factors; Roma - statistics & numerical data; Romanies; Sewage; Slovakia - epidemiology; Small intestine; Statistics; Toilets; Tropical diseases; Un-dewormed animals; World health; Worms
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-024-09500-z

Intestinal parasitic infections remain a significant global health issue, particularly affecting poor and marginalised populations. These infections significantly contribute to children's diseases, malnutrition, poor school performance, cognitive disorders, and future economic losses. This study aimed to explore and compare the occurrence of intestinal parasites in early childhood among the group of infants from the Slovak majority population and from marginalised Roma communities (MRCs). Furthermore, it aimed to explore the health complaints of children with and without intestinal parasitic infection in the past month and assess the effect of various risk factors on the occurrence of intestinal parasitic infection in infants from MRCs. We obtained cross-sectional data from mothers and stool samples of their children aged 13-21 months using the first wave of the longitudinal RomaREACH study. A total of 181 stools from infants were analysed: 105 infants from the Slovak majority population and 76 from MRCs. Infants from MRCs are significantly more often infected by Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and Giardia duodenalis than their better-off peers from the majority population. Infection rates are 30% in infants from MRCs vs. 0% in the majority population (p