Epidemiological study of Taenia solium infections in a rural village in Honduras.

An epidemiological study was conducted in a Honduran rural community in 1991, to determine the local prevalence and associated risk factors of Taenia infection. The seroprevalence of anti-cysticercus antibodies, investigated by ELISA (N = 526), was found to be 30%. The prevalence of intestinal infections with Taenia and other parasites was investigated, by formol-ether concentration of three stool samples from each subject (N = 536). Almost all (96%) of the subjects carried at least one of the 17 species of intestinal parasite identified, 11 (2%) of them (nine of them female) being found to be infected with Taenia spp. When nine of these 11 were given niclosamide, four expelled Taenia segments, all of which were identified as T. solium after carmine staining. Risk factors associated with seropositivity were earthen floor, overcrowding, previous taeniasis and living in the same household as a person reporting previous taeniasis. Four years later (1995), a follow-up study in a sub-sample of the previously studied population revealed that 34% of the subjects were seropositive for anti-Taenia solium antibodies (as determined by a cysticercosis-specific, enzyme-linked, immunoelectrotransfer, blot assay) and that 1.5% had taeniasis. Taeniasis and cysticercosis therefore appear to be important public-health problems in rural areas of Honduras, as they are in other countries of Latin America. Large-scale studies need to be conducted to facilitate the design of programmes to control these diseases.