Helminthic infestations in the Tyrol, Austria.

At the federal public health laboratory, Innsbruck, 142 426 samples were examined for intestinal helminthosis from 1990 until 2000. Enterobius vermicularis accounted for half (49.7%) of the cases diagnosed, followed by Taenia saginata (28.3%), Ascaris lumbricoides (12.8%), and Trichuris trichiura (3.9%). Of all specimens tested for helminths, 26% had been positive in 1945, and 0.98% in 1985. The proportion of positive findings with respect to the total number of specimens tested was 0.24% in the time span 1990-2000. It appears to us that these numbers fairly reflect the real prevalence of helminthosis in Austria.