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Seroprevalence and risk factors for Toxocara infection among children in a rural community in Fars province, southern Iran
Author(s) -
Sarkari Bahador,
Alirezaei Roya,
Layegh Gigloo Akram,
Rezaei Zahra,
Mikaeili Fataneh,
Bahreini Mohammad Saleh,
Fararouei Mohammad
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
parasite immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1365-3024
pISSN - 0141-9838
DOI - 10.1111/pim.12582
Subject(s) - seroprevalence , toxocariasis , immunology , medicine , veterinary medicine , epidemiology , serology , demography , antibody , helminths , sociology
Summary The current study was performed to find out the seroprevalence of Toxocara infection in children living in a rural community in Fars province, southern Iran. Venous blood was taken from 617 children and evaluated for anti‐Toxocara antibodies, using an ELISA system. Of the 617 studied children, 318 (51.5%) were boys and 299 (48.5%) were girls. Mean age of the participants was 9.2 (±10.7) years. Most cases of the recruited subjects (37.4%) were in the age group of 0‐5 years. Anti‐Toxocara antibodies were detected in sera of 39 (6.3%) of children. From these, 23 (62.2%) were boys and 14 (37.8%) were girls. The infection rate was almost the same in different age groups. No statistically significant differences were seen between seropositivity to Toxocara infection and gender or age of the participants. Dogs or cats ownership was not associated with Toxocara seropositivity. The adjusted associations of the study variables suggested that the visceral leishmaniasis ( VL ) seropositivity is significantly associated with the seroprevalence of Toxocara infection ( P < 0.001). Findings of the current study revealed that Toxocara infection is a common infection among children in the studied rural community in Iran. Preventive measurements are necessary to minimize the rate of Toxocara infection in children in such communities.