Treatment of intestinal parasites in Australian aboriginal children.

Five to nine-year-old Aboriginal children on Mitchell River Community maintained a satisfactory growth rate in the presence of multiple infections with intestinal parasites. Intensive treatment was successful in eliminating Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica, and Strongyloides stercoralis infections, but reinfection with G. lamblia was rapid. Treatment failed to produce any growth spurt in the group. This may have been due to the rapidity of reinfection, but raises the question of whether intestinal parasites contribute significantly to growth retardation or whether growth retarded children have an immune deficit rendering them more susceptible to parasitic infections.