Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Forsyth County, North Carolina. IV. Domestic Environmental Sanitation and the Prevalence of Entamoeba Histolytica

Abstract

Certain of the findings of a survey of the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in Forsyth County, North Carolina, have been previously reported (Mackie, T. T. et al., 1955). These relate to the prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica, the mass treatment of amebiasis and certain aspects of the epidemiology of the infection. The survey was directed primarily to the examination of 1,934 school children, white and Negro, urban and rural, constituting a representative sample of the schoolchild population of Forsyth County, the examination of family members of children found to be infected by E. histolytica and to the examination of a comparable group of negative control families of apparently uninfected children. A prevalence of 6.1 per cent infection was found among the school children examined. Similar investigation of a total of 94 families of children infected by E. histolytica revealed a prevalence of 34.1 per cent, or an average of 2.2 cases of amebiasis per family.