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Parasitologic Studies in a Group of Furloughed Missionaries

II. HELMINTH FINDINGS

Routine stool examinations, including purgation studies in most patients, for intestinal parasites were done on large numbers of furloughed missionaries and their families. In addition, about one-third of these were tested for filariasis with several procedures as well as serologic methods. Many were checked for schistosomiasis by employing sedimentation, egg-hatching and serologic procedures in addition to direct wet-mount smears and Ritchie formalin-ether concentration methods. Urine studies for bilharzia were conducted in a considerable group, and cellophanetape preparations for enterobiasis were submitted by many persons and families. Nematodes were more prevalent than flatworms, as expected. The large number of filarial infections and the several unusual helminths discovered were of special interest.

Some patients had multiple helminthic problems often associated with protozoan infections. (The figures for these combined parasitic infections were not tabulated.) Special techniques, sedimentation and egg-hatching, were introduced into the routine procedure schedule for stool specimens some time after the present studies were begun. Thus, it is conceivable that more helminthic infections would have been recorded for the earlier group had these been employed universally. The same is true for filariasis studies in regard to special procedures. W. bancrofti probably would have been found in many patients if filariasis studies had been conducted at night as well as in the daytime. Serologic tests for helminthic infections were a valuable adjunct, but required careful interpretation; the number of false negatives and false positives suggest a decided need for further research.

^* Chief, Division of Parasitology.