BACKGROUND An accurate diagnosis of helminth infection is important to improve patient management. However, there is considerable intra- and inter-specimen variation of helminth egg counts in human feces. Homogenization of stool samples has been suggested to improve diagnostic accuracy, but there are no detailed investigations. Rapid disintegration of hookworm eggs constitutes another problem i...

Naturally occurring human immunity to both schistosomiasis and hookworm infection has been associated with IgE responses against parasite allergen-like proteins. Since the two helminths frequently coinfect the same individuals, there is growing advocacy for their concurrent treatment. However, both helminths are known to exert strong immunomodulatory effects; therefore, coinfected individuals c...

To the Editor: Human hookworm infections are commonly caused by 2 anthroponotic species, Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale. However, A. ceylanicum, a zoonotic hookworm of canids and felids, is emerging as the second most common human hookworm in Southeast Asia (1–4). Two haplotypes of A. ceylanicum hookworm have been identified, 1 specific to humans and 1 specific to humans, dogs, an...

The Syrian Golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) has been used to model infections with the hookworm Ancylostoma ceylanicum. New molecular immunological reagents to measure cellular immune responses in hamsters were developed and used to determine the impact of A. ceylanicum hookworm infection on host cytokine responses and lymphoproliferation. Initial larval infection with 100 third-stage A. c...

A baseline study of soil-transmitted helminthiases was carried out in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, southern Thailand. The study sites were Wat Krou Chou Primary School and nearby villages in Sichon district, and Wat Thang Phoon Primary School and nearby villages in Chalerm Phrakiat District. Surveys of the schoolchildren's stools were conducted by the Kato-Katz technique. The results showed th...

We conducted a community cross-sectional survey of soil-transmitted helminthiasis in humans and dogs in four provinces in northern Laos. We collected and tested human and dog fecal samples and analyzed results against sociodemographic data. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, and Strongyloides stercoralis was 26.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 23.7-28.4%), ...

The 2 principal species of hookworms infecting humans are Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale. Case studies on zoonotic hookworm infections with Ancylostoma ceylanicum and/or Ancylostoma caninum are known mainly from Asian countries. Of these 2 zoonotic species, only A. ceylanicum can develop to adulthood in humans. In the present study, we report a molecular-based survey of human hook...

Different periodic selective chemotherapeutic schemes were used to control hookworm and other soil-transmitted helminthiases in eight villages in five counties in Zhejiang Province, China, 1985-1988. The results showed that the prevalence rates of hookworm, ascariasis, and trichuriasis decreased from 35.0-74.4%, 47.0-.76% and 22.9-47.5% to 3.2-15.8%, 9.9-47.8%, and 3.5-31.2%, respectively, usin...

Human hookworm infection is a neglected tropical disease caused predominantly by the nematode parasite Necator americanus [1]. New estimates indicate that approximately 440 million people are infected with hookworm worldwide with the majority of cases found in the developing regions of South Asia (140 million cases), Sub-Saharan Africa (118 million), Southeast Asia (77 million), East Asia (64.5...

Hookworm infestation will usually present with iron deficiency anemia. In this report we present a case of obscure overt gastrointestinal bleeding occuring from last two years in a young individual, requiring 50 units of blood transfusion. He was diagnosed with hookworm infection on a capsule endoscopy, which demonstrated dancing worms buried in the mucosa of small bowel and were actively sucki...