Participación comunitaria en el control de las parasitosis intestinales en una localidad rural de Argentina

objectives: to design, implement, and evaluate a complex plan of actions aimed at reducing parasitoses in a rural town in the province of buenos aires, argentina, with the involvement of the community. methods: the project took place in general mansilla, buenos aires province, in three stages. first, the initial epidemiological situation of intestinal parasitoses in the community was assessed by analyzing for parasites a series of stool samples and anal swabs taken from a sample of 522 individuals. second, interventions were implemented: the pharmacological treatment of the infected individuals, and health education for the public involving local promoters. third, the pharmacological treatment was evaluated with followup stool testing for those treated; the health education effort was evaluated through a survey and stool testing for parasites of those who had participated solely in the education. results: the frequency of intestinal parasitoses was 58.2%; of the total, 43.9% were protozoa and 35.2%, helminths. the most common pathogens were enterobius vermicularis, blastocystis hominis, and giardia lamblia. the deworming treatment reduced intestinal parasitoses to 15.1% (p < 0.001), and was more effective in helminths than in protozoa. intestinal parasitoses declined following the health education intervention, in general (from 58.2% to 47.9%; p = 0.019), as well as for helminths (from 35.2% to 20.3%; p < 0.001), and hygiene habits improved significantly. conclusions: treatment of parasitosis and the educational intervention provided by local promoters made it possible to reduce parasitic diseases-particularly those caused by helminths-in the community under study. we recommend extending this experience to other rural communities and broadening the interventions to cutoff additional modes of transmission, such as water and food.