Intestinal Parasite Infections of the Ambulatory White Clinic Population of New Orleans

Abstract

Summary 1. Data are presented on the intestinal parasites of a sampling of the ambulatory white clinic population resident in the metropolitan area of New Orleans, comprising 4,270 individuals over a period of five years (1929–1935). 2. The rates for all of the parasites found have been analyzed by age groups, by geographical subdivisions and by year periods. These rates are presented in tabular form (table 1) and have been considered briefly ad seriatim in the body of the communication. 3. Statistically Endamoeba histolytica, E. coli, Endolimax nana and Giardia lamblia are important protozoan infections while Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichocephalus trichiurus constitute large blocs of the helminthic infections. Clinically E. histolytica, Ascaris lumbricoides and possibly Giardia lamblia are important. 4. Especial analysis is presented of the rate of intestinal parasite infections in childhood (1 to 10 years) in the New Orleans area. 5. Because of the differences in technics, the varied types of populations surveyed by different investigators and different personal equations involved, it has not seemed advisable to compare our data with those elsewhere. Our data are believed to be fairly representative of a relatively homogeneous population which constitutes approximately the lower two–fifths of the economic strata of the white population of the city and its immediate environs. 6. The weighted averages for the infections encountered in our survey have been compared with theoretical standardized rates, computed by using the 1930 age distribution of the Louisiana population. In infections which accumulate with age the standardized averages are much higher; in those which are particularly heavy in childhood the standardized averages are appreciably lower.