A Survey on Intestinal Parasites of Soldiers in Korea

일부 국군 장병의 최근 장내 기생충 감염 현황

Total of 2,643 Korean soldiers were examined of their stool for parasitic infections by both cellophane thick smear and formalin-ether concentration techniques from August, 1983 to December, 1985. Out of them, 73.6% were free from any parasite, 22.6% were ova positive and 4.0% cyst positive. The ova positive rates by species were Ascaris lumbricoides 2.0%, Trichuris trichiura 13.0%, hookworm and Trichostrongylus orientalis 0.08% respectively, Clonorchis sinensis 7.6%, Metagonimus yokogawai 1.1%, Paragonimus westermani 0.08%, Echinostoma hortense 0.04%, Fibricola seoulensis 0.9%, Taenia sp. 0.3%, Hymenolepis nana 0.2% and H. diminuta 0.04%. Most of them (87.3%) were positive by a species, 11.9% by two and 0.8% by 3 species. The cyst positive rates were Entamoeba histolytica 0.6%, E. coli 1.4%, Endolimax nana 1.7%, Iodoamoeba butschlii 0.04% and Giardia lamblia 0.9%. Among the cyst positives, 89.5% were positive by a species, 7.6% by two and 0.5% by 3 species. The intestinal parasite infections among the Korean soldiers decreased distinctly compared with previous data.