Are soil and waterborne parasitic infections health risk for worker populations in southeast Turkey?

Abstract

Objective: The soil and waterborne parasitic infections rate is high degree in developed and developing countries. Migratory workers have greater exposure to these parasitic infections and a lot of morbidity due to these infections in workers. For this reason, we aimed to investigate the presence of soil and waterborne parasites in the Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone of southeast Turkey. Methods: A total of 25 environmental samples (18 soil samples and 7 water samples) were taken from The Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone, in two different seasons (summer and winter). All of the samples were screened for parasites using microscopic examination and culture methods. The parasites were genotyped with polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing analysis. Results: The prevalence of soil and water transmitted parasites was found to be positive 52% (13/25) in summer while there is no any parasites in winter. It was found 22.3% (4/18) Acanthamoeba (genotype4), 16.6% (3/18) Ascaris lumbricoides, 11.1% (2/18) Strongoides stercoralis in soil samples and 14.3% (1/7) Acanthamoeba (genotype 4), 42.9% (3/7) Blastocystis (subtype3) in all of water samples. Conclusion: The migratory worker waves have always shaped the ethnic composition and public health problem of the province of Gaziantep. Climate change has the potential to influence prevalence of parasite and our study has shown that increased prevalence of parasite in summer. The global target for the coming years should be to remove the deaths from earth and waterborne parasitic infections in the worker populations. Thus, we prevent the distribution of parasitic infections in our country.