Summary

In a survey of the parasitic infections in the poor and the more well-to-do negroid indigenous populations, and in the immigrant negroid and white populations of Curaçao, it was found that the highest rate of infection was in the immigrant negroes, the lowest in the immigrant whites. The immigrant whites had the highest prevalence rates of pathogenic intestinal bacilli, the immigrant Negroes the highest rates of worm infection. E. histolytica was most prevalent in the indigenous groups.

In the indigenous groups anemia was more prevalent among the poor. This was thought to be due to a deficient intake of iron, which has been demonstrated by food surveys in this region, and also to a higher prevalence of low gastric acid values.

A lowering action on the hemoglobin due to parasitic infection could be found only in the females of the poorer group. As in this group no differences in the stomach acid values could be found, nor differences in ages between the infected and non-infected persons, it was supposed that the anemia of the infected group was due to the extra burden of normally harmless intestinal parasites on ill-fed people.