Community Surveys for Endamoeba histolytica and Other Intestinal Protozoa in Tennessee; First Report

Abstract

The studies to be reported represent a cooperative project of the Department of Preventive Medicine of Vanderbilt University with the Tennessee State Department of Public Health. The routine survey examinations for intestinal protozoa were made on specimens collected in connection with a general survey of the state for intestinal parasites. In the helminth studies the Department of Helminthology of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene was also a cooperating agency. The survey began in December, 1928, and is still under way, but the results to be reported are those recorded between July 1 and December 3, 1929. The specimens so far examined have come from white schools and communities in the rural sections of East and Middle Tennessee. Many of the subjects live in primitive conditions in the hills of the Cumberland Plateau. Others are average farm groups, and still others are from towns of one to two thousand inhabitants. The large majority of the specimens have been collected through schools, so that the school age group of 6 to 17 years greatly predominates. A considerable number of preschool age children have also been examined, and fewer adults. A small number of studies have been made on complete families. The distinctive feature of the survey is that the subjects were all living in their homes, that is, in their normal environment. So far as can be determined, this is the first large survey for intestinal protozoa in which the subjects were not in an unnatural evironment, such as a hospital, asylum or military organization.