Abstract

In may 2003 an epidemiologic-parasitological survey was carried out in 206 pre-school and schoolchildren from San Vicente de Lo Arcaya School in Colina, a semi-rural county of the Santiago Province in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. The most frequent parasitic elements were: Blastocystis hominis - in men and women respectively - 38.8% and 44.4%, Giardia intestinalis with 9.5% and 16.2% and Enterobius vermicularis with 12.9% and 10.0%. It is notewortly that the infected children were asymptomatic Cryptosporidium parvum was not observed and an ELISA test for Strongyloides stercoralis infections was positive in one children. This study confirms that intestinal parasitic infections in children remain with a high prevalence in Chile.