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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 17(1), 1968, pp. 72-78
Copyright © 1968 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Epidemiologic Role of Skin Hypersensitivity in Hookworm Disease*

I. de Hurtado AND M. Layrisse
Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Apartado 1827, Caracas, Venezuela

Skin-testing was done in 206 persons from an endemic area and 380 from a nonendemic area with a larval antigen of Necator americanus. The prevalence of hookworm infection was 100% in the endemic area and only 8.4% in the nonendemic area.

The hookworm load was >2,000 eggs per gram of feces in 45% of the cases in the endemic area; the degree of infection was very low in the nonendemic area, where most of the cases were detected only by the test-tube culture method of Harada.

All subjects were tested with 0.1, 1, and 10 µg N per ml concentrations of the larval antigen. The skin response was expressed as the percentage of sensitivity and specificity, by comparing the number of those with positive skin tests with the number of those with positive stools in the endemic area and the number of those with negative skin tests with the number of those with negative stools in the nonendemic area.

The skin response to the 1 µg N per ml antigen, which is 85% sensitive and 89% specific, appears useful for screening hookworm-infected populations. The skin response is not significantly modified by age and sex.

The degree of infection clearly influences the response to the 0.1 µg N per ml antigen, and by using it together with the 1.0 µg N per ml antigen an idea of both the prevalence and the load might hopefully be obtained.


* This work was supported in part by U. S. Public Health Service Grant No. H-6507.






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Copyright © 1968 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.