A small-scale survey of intestinal helminthic infections among the residents near Pakse, Laos.

A small-scale epidemiological survey was undertaken on the residents along the Mekong River near Pakse, Laos, to know the status of helminthic infections. A total of 137 fecal samples were collected from the staffs of the provincial government, their family, and primary schoolchildren in Pakse City, Champassak Province, and examined by Kato-Katz smear technique. The overall helminth positive rate was 75.9%, and the helminths detected were Opisthorchis viverrini (43.8%). Ascaris lumbricoides (26.3%), Trichuris trichiura (19.0%), hookworms (19.0%), Strongyloides stercoralis (2.2%), Taenia sp. (0.7%), and Schistosoma mekongi (1.5%). To obtain the adult worm of the liver fluke, three infected persons were treated with praziquantel and purged with magnesium sulfate. Five, 10, and 395 adult flukes, respectively, were collected from their diarrheic stools, all of which were morphologically identified as O. viverrini. The results represent that the liver fluke and soil-transmitted helminths are highly prevalent, and the life cycle of S. mekongi is likely to be maintained in this area.