The prevalence of intestinal parasites in Puerto Rican farm workers in western Massachusetts

Abstract

A parasitic surveillance of farm workers of Puerto Rican background and their children revealed a high prevalence rate (35.5%) of parasites in this population. This high prevalence rate, however, was expected in view of the fact that other researchers have found a high degree of parasitosis in Puerto Rican populations residing on the US mainland. However, the prevalence rate was almost double that reported by Winsberg, et al, for the urban population, thus suggesting a higher degree of exposure to the migrant worker than to his counterpart living in the cities. Two cases of hookworm infections were detected in children born in the United States who had never traveled outside the area, thus confirming that there is ample opportunity for the transmission of pathogenic parasites on farms, and also suggesting that migrant workers must live under poor sanitary conditions.