Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Aug;91(2):267-72.
doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.13-0438. Epub 2014 Jun 30.

Enteric parasites and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli in children from Cañazas County, Veraguas Province, Panama

Elena Jiménez Gutiérrez  1 , Vanessa Pineda  1 , Jose E Calzada  1 , Richard L Guerrant  1 , Jones B Lima Neto  1 , Relana C Pinkerton  1 , Azael Saldaña  2
Affiliations

Enteric parasites and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli in children from Cañazas County, Veraguas Province, Panama

Elena Jiménez Gutiérrez et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the height-for-age z-scores (HAZ), and the prevalence of intestinal inflammation, gastrointestinal infections with parasites, and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) in rural Panamanian children. Stool microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for EAEC detected Giardia lamblia (32%, 32 of 100) and EAEC (13%, 11 of 87) in the study participants, respectively. Anthropometric analyses showed that those children who were > 12 months of age had lower HAZ scores (mean of -1.449) than the reference population. As a group, the children in the study 1 to 5 years of age did not show recovery from the previously mentioned decline in terms of their HAZ. The HAZ means of the children infected with G. lamblia, EAEC, and Ascaris lumbricoides were -1.49, -1.67, and -2.11, respectively. Furthermore, the study participants with A. lumbricoides and EAEC infections in the presence of lactoferrin showed another decrease of 0.19 and 0.13, respectively, in their HAZ means.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Azael Saldaña and Jose E. Calzada are members of Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI), SENACYT-Panama.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Map of the Cañazas District (projected region) showing the geographic location of the Cañazas County (darker zone).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) of study participants according to presence or absence of enteric pathogens and fecal lactoferrin, as a marker of intestinal inflammation.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) of all study participants according to age in months. Out of 100 subjects, two were excluded from this analysis because anthropometric data were not collected from them.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Koopman JS, Fajardo L, Bertrand W. Food, sanitation, and the socioeconomic determinants of child growth in Colombia. Am J Public Health. 1981;71:31–37. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rowland MG, Cole TJ, Whitehead RG. A quantitative study into the role of infection in determining nutritional status in Gambian village children. Br J Nutr. 1977;37:441–450. - PubMed
    1. Cole TJ, Parkin JM. Infection and its effect on the growth of young children: a comparison of The Gambia and Uganda. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1977;71:196–198. - PubMed
    1. Mata LJ, Kromal RA, Urrutia JJ, Garcia B. Effect of infection on food intake and the nutritional state: perspectives as viewed from the village. Am J Clin Nutr. 1977;30:1215–1227. - PubMed
    1. Martorell R, Habicht JP, Yarbrough C, Lechtig A, Klein RE, Western KA. Acute morbidity and physical growth in rural Guatemalan children. Am J Dis Child. 1975;129:1296–1301. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms