BACKGROUND Individuals living in areas endemic for helminths are commonly infected with multiple species. Despite increasing emphasis given to the potential health impacts of polyparasitism, few studies have investigated the relative importance of household and environmental factors on the risk of helminth co-infection. Here, we present an investigation of exposure-related risk factors as sourc...

A cross-sectional study of the nutritional status of schoolchildren aged 7-10 years from the Kuala Betis Resettlement Scheme in Gua Musang, Kelantan was done. A total of 291 schoolchildren were examined but only 183 (62.9%) fecal samples were returned for geo-helminth infection analysis. The prevalence of stunting was 40.4% and underweight was 28.4%. A total of 127 schoolchildren (69.4%) were p...

The distribution of several pathogenic helminth infections coincides geographically with many devastating microbial diseases, including enteric bacterial infections. To dissect the mechanisms by which helminths modulate the host's response to enteric bacteria and bacteria-mediated intestinal inflammation, we have recently established a coinfection model and shown that coinfection with the helmi...

Patterns of infection among hosts in a population are often driven by intrinsic host features such as age or sex, as well as by positive or negative interactions between parasite species. We investigated helminth parasitism in 2 South American rodent species, Ctenomys australis and C. talarum (Octodontidae), to determine whether the unusual solitary and subterranean nature of these hosts would ...

BACKGROUND Infection with intestinal helminths is common and may contribute to the decreased efficacy of Vibrio cholerae vaccines in endemic compared to non-endemic areas. However, the immunomodulatory effects of concomitant intestinal parasitic infection in cholera patients have not been systematically evaluated. METHODS We evaluated V. cholerae-specific immune responses in a cohort of patie...

Concurrent helminth infections have been suggested to be associated with protection against cerebral malaria in humans, a condition characterised by systemic inflammation. Here we show that a concurrent chronic gastro-intestinal nematode infection does not alter the course of murine cerebral malaria. Mice infected with Heligmosomoides polygyrus, and co-infected with Plasmodium berghei ANKA 14 d...

Most studies evaluating epidemiologic relationships between helminths and HIV have been conducted in the pre-ART era, and evidence of the impact of helminth infections on HIV disease progression remains conflicting. Less is known about helminth infection and clinical outcomes in HIV-infected adults receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). We sampled HIV-infected adults for eight gastrointestinal...

The use of anthelmintics is strongly limited in organic farming. This may induce a change in the intensity (no of worms) and diversity (proportions of species) of helminth infection. Helminths remain a major preoccupation in organic sheep farming: high levels of infection have been recorded on several farms and helminth diversity is always higher. The helminth infection in milk cattle of northe...

BACKGROUND Malaria, schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminth infections (STH) are important parasitic infections in Sub-Saharan Africa where a significant proportion of people are exposed to co-infections of more than one parasite. In Tanzania, these infections are a major public health problem particularly in school and pre-school children. The current study investigated malaria and helmi...

Controversy persists as to whether helminth infections cause or protect against asthma and atopy. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of helminth infection on asthma and atopy among Bangladeshi children. A total of 912 children aged 4.5 years (mean = 54.4, range = 53.5-60.8 months) participated in a cross-sectional study nested into a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh. ...