Abstract
Intestinal helminths are among the pathogens most often found in humans and can result in serious pathological, such as visceral larva migrans syndrome. Domestic animals serve as the natural hosts, but under certain conditions humans can acquire infection, developing an atypical cycle. Thus, the contamination for animal droppings in public spaces, such as beaches, poses risk factor in the transmission, increasing the incidence of these zoonoses. In this context, informations about environmental health is necessary because the monitoring would be the first step for treating unhealthy environments. Therefore, the study monitored the sand of beaches of two islands within Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro state, was carried out by traditional methods (Lutz and Baermann) and the ELISA immunological test, in order to determine the level and the influence of seasonality on this contamination. Among the genera detected, Ascaris sp. and Ancylostoma sp. occurred with greatest frequency, functioning as important biological markers of environmental contamination. The highest frequency of parasite structures occurred in the summer, meaning a greater risk of disease transmission. The results evidence the high level of environmental contamination and the seasonal variations of this contamination. Additionally, the data obtained from ELISA confirm the sensitivity of this technique to detect cysts and oocysts of protozoa in the sand samples analyzed.
Highlights
Intestinal helminthoses are among the most commonly found infections in humans, sometimes resulting in serious pathologies
The two techniques returned the same results for Ancylostoma sp., with only 1 positive sample in each case (Figure 1)
When evaluating the influence of seasonality on the absolute frequency of samples positive for geohelminths, the results demonstrated that the prevalence frequency of samples positive was observed in winter and autumn, indicating this is the season of highest risk of human infection by parasites
Summary
Intestinal helminthoses are among the most commonly found infections in humans, sometimes resulting in serious pathologies. Domestic animals are the natural hosts of many of the helminths causing these diseases, but under determined conditions humans can be infected, developing an atypical cycle In this context, the contamination by animal droppings in public places, such as the sand at beaches and parks and soil around houses, is an important risk factor for the transmission of these agents, especially in places with precarious sanitation. Oliveira-Filho et al (2011) observed, from a parasitological study of beaches in the northeastern state of Paraíba, the presence of larval stages of Strongyloides stercoralis, cysts of Giardia lamblia and eggs of Taenia sp These findings indicate the role of contaminated beach sand in spreading zoonotic diseases, because many of these agents use beaches as places for development to enable infection of natural and accidental hosts, including humans
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