The health status of rural school children in the Amazon basin of Ecuador.

An assessment of the health status among school children of the Naporuna ethnicity was conducted in north-eastern Ecuador. Prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), parasitic infections, and pathology was investigated among 511 school children. The overall nutritional status of the school children was found to be good despite a high prevalence of helminthic infections. The prevalence of stunting was 1.4 per cent and of wasting 1.8 per cent. Sixty-four per cent of the children surveyed were found infected with one or more of the soil-transmitted helminths. In the clinical examination high prevalence of pterigium (89.2 per cent) was found. Upper respiratory infections (5.2 per cent), septic skin lesions (4.4 per cent), mycotic otitis (3.8 per cent), tinea (3.4 per cent) and bronchitis (2 per cent) were the main infectious pathology found. Likely explanations of these findings are discussed.