Parotid enlargement, forehead edema, and suppression of malaria as nutritional consequences of ascariasis.

Abstract

Bilateral painless enlargement of the parotids, a curiously localized edema of the forehead and relative freedom from malaria were striking findings in children of Anjouan but not of Grande Comore, two neighboring islands of the Comorro group in the Indian Ocean. Compared with those of Grande Comore, Anjouan children were heavily infested with Ascaris lumbricoides. We suggest that the clinical findings may be the nutritional consequence of severe ascariasis and that the low incidence of malaria in Anjouan children may be an example of the delicate ecological balance between the host, the Ascaris, and the plasmoidum.