title: Intestinal parasitism prevalence amongst children from six indigenous communities residing in Cali, Colombia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Establishing the prevalence of intestinal parasitism in children aged 5 to 14 years of age from six indigenous communities residing in the city of Cali.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, descriptive epidemiological study was carried out in six indigenous communities residing in the city of Cali; it consisted of making a direct serial and concentration coproparasitological examination of a randomly selected sample of fifty-seven 5 to 14 year-old children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 57 samples obtained, 84 % of the children were infected with parasites; protozoa (98 %) predominated over helminths (16.7 %) and mixed parasitemia was found in 14.6 % of the samples. Monoparasitism appeared in children over 10 years of age and biparasitism (10.4 %) and polyparasitism (52.1 %) in children under 10 years of age. Regarding occult blood determination, 6 % were observed to be positive in all the samples analysed; 4 % of these results were associated with E. histolyticaldispar. The simple parasitism index (SPI) reflected a high degree of infestation amongst the children included in the study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of intestinal parasitism in indigenous infants was higher than that reported nationally in the overall adolescent and school-aged children population in the same age group. Mono- and polyparasitism prevailed in the positive samples. The infestation load was not randomly distributed amongst the communities.
authors.affiliation: School of Bacteriology, Faculty of Health, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. mercysal2003@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salcedo-Cifuentes
authors.forename: Ofelia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Florez
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bermúdez
authors.forename: Luzmila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Araujo
authors.forename: María V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Bolaños
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D058345:Asymptomatic Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006373:Helminthiasis / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007411:Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / Q000208:ethnology*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011528:Protozoan Infections / Q000208:ethnology*