Endemic Human Fasciolosis in the Bolivian Altiplano

Overview

Journal Epidemiol Infect

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialties Infectious Diseases
Public Health

Date 2006 Oct 27

PMID 17064455

Citations 29

Authors

M Parkinson

S M ONeill

J P Dalton

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Fasciolosis, caused by trematodes of the genus Fasciola, is an emerging disease of humans. One of the highest levels of human fasciolosis hepatica is found amongst the indigenous Aymaran people of the Northern Bolivian Altiplano. A meta-analysis of epidemiological surveys from 38 communities in the region demonstrates that fasciolosis has been endemic in the region since at least 1984 and is a zoonosis of rural communities. Human and bovine fasciolosis is associated with the communities lying in the plain from Lake Titicaca to La Paz, predominantly in the Los Andes province. In Los Andes incidences of up to 67% of population cohorts were found, and prevalence is age-related with the highest infection rate in children aged 8-11 years.

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