A survey of intestinal parasites of the foreign laborers (Indonesians and Filipinos) in Ishikawa Prefecture

Abstract

A survey of intestinal parasites was conducted on 198 foreign workers aged 19-27 from Inodonesia and Philippines. They work for a private company in Ishikawa Prefecture as technical trainee. On the base of stool examination, 94 (71%) out of 133 Indonesians and 48 (74%) of 65 Filipinos had intestinal helminths and/or protozoan infections. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichura and Hookworm was 4.5, 64.1, 10.6%, respectively. In addition, the positive rate of the cyst of Entamoeba coli, Endolimax nana, Blastocystis hominis and Giardia lumblia was 11.1, 5.6, 4.5 and 2.0%, respectively. No E. histolytica was found; however, counter current immunoelectrophoresis revealed that one out of 112 sera possessed the antibody against the antigen of HK-9 strain of E. histolytica. Sixty-three cases of trichuriasis were treated with mebendazole at a dose of 200 mg/day x 3 consecutive days. Re-examination revealed that 53 (85.5%) of them were cured.