Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:46:35.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Taenia saginata (Cestoda) in western Kenya: the reliability of faecal examinations in diagnosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Andrew Hall
Affiliation:
The Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EE
M. C. Latham
Affiliation:
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
D. W. T. Crompton
Affiliation:
The Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EE
L. S. Stephenson
Affiliation:
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

Summary

The prevalence of Taenia saginata (Cestoda) among 146 predominantly Pokot tribesmen in western Kenya was studied in an attempt to assess the reliability of detecting infections by faecal examinations. Firstly, a single faecal sample was microscopically examined after being processed by a standard ether sedimentation technique. Secondly, all subjects were treated with niclosamide and a purgative and the tapeworms were recovered. In this way the efficiency of diagnosing infections by faecal examinations was estimated. T. saginata eggs were found in the faeces of 68% of the men who were eventually found to be infected. Information was collected by interview from all subjects about whether they were or ever had been infected with tapeworms and about the form of treatment previously sought or taken. Eleven out of 25 men were apparently unaware of their tapeworm infections while no evidence of infection was found among 10 of the 24 reportedly infected men. A change in the pattern of treatment for tapeworms was reported which may have resulted in a recent decline in the prevalence of infection.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abdussalam, M., Gemmell, M. A., Griffiths, R. B., Grossklaus, D., Kagan, I. G., Schwabe, C. W., Šlais, J. & Soulsby, E. J. L. (1976). Research needs in taeniasis-cysticercosis (Memorandum). Bulletin of the World Health Organization 53, 6773.Google Scholar
Brooks, R. M., Latham, M. C. & Crompton, D. W. T. (1979). The relationship of nutrition and health to worker productivity in Kenya. East African Medical Journal 56, 413–21.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, H. W. (1975). Basic Clinical Parasitology, 4th ed.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Carter, F. S. (1953). Cerebral cysticercosis. East African Medical Journal 30, 295301.Google ScholarPubMed
Cox, P. S. V. (1973). Geographic variation of disease within a single district. East African Medical Journal 50, 712719.Google ScholarPubMed
Cox, P. S. V. (1974). Planning for the future in a nomadic environment. In The Parasitoses of Man and Animals in Africa (ed. Anderson, C. and Kilama, W. L.), pp. 419–26. Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Diesfeld, H. J. & Hecklau, H. K. (1978). Kenya: A Geomedical Monograph. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duthy, B. L. & Van Sommeren, V. D. (1948). The survival of Taenia saginata eggs on open pasture. East African Agricultural Journal 13, 171–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fao/Unep/Who (1976). Joint Fao/Unep/Who Consultation on field control of Taeniasis and Echinococcosis. Nairobi: Mimeographed report.Google Scholar
Farahmandian, I., Sahba, G. H., Arfaa, F. & Movafagh, K. (1973). A comparison of stool examination and mass treatment for indication of the prevalence of Taenia saginata. Tropical and Geographic Medicine 25, 171–3.Google ScholarPubMed
Frolova, A. A. & Dzhumaev, M. D. (1972). Laboratory diagnosis of Taenia saginata infections. Meditsinskaya Parazitologiya 41, 404–7. (Original not seen: Helminthological Abstracts 42, 240.)Google Scholar
Froyd, G. (1965). Bovine cysticercosis and human taeniasis in Kenya. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 59, 169–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Froyd, G. & Czyzewicz, M. (1961). Incidence of multiple infestation with Taenia saginata in Kenya. East African Medical Journal 38, 346–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Ginsberg, A. (1954). Zoonoses in Kenya. East African Medical Journal 31, 81–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Graham, C. F. (1941). A device for the diagnosis of Enterobius infection. American Journal of Tropical Medicine 21, 159–61.Google Scholar
Huntingford, G. W. B. (1953). The Southern Nilo-Hamites. Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Part VIII. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Khalil, L. F., Jones, A. & Gibbons, L. M. (1980). Cysticercosis and taeniasis in game animals of Africa and their public health importance. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 74, 115–16.Google Scholar
Khan, N. I., Owen, R. R. & Crewe, W. (1979). The transport of eggs of Taenia saginata by Musca domestica. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 73, 325.Google Scholar
Laws, G. F. (1968). Physical factors influencing survival of taeniid eggs. Experimental Parasitology 22, 227–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKinnon, J. A. (1957). The mass treatment of tapeworms with mepacrine. East African Medical Journal 34, 1518.Google ScholarPubMed
Mango, A. M. (1971). Helminthiasis and the East African economy with special emphasis on hydatidosis and taeniasis/cysticercosis. East African Medical Journal 48, 606–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Mazzotti, L. (1944 a). Presencia de huevecillos de Taenia en la region perianal. Revista del Instituto de Salubridad y enfermedades tropicales, Mexico 5, 153–5.Google Scholar
Mazzotti, L. (1944 b). Observaciones en 101 individuos parasitados con Taenia saginata. Revista del Instituto de Salubridad y enfermedades tropicales, Mexico 5, 207–13.Google Scholar
Miller, A. (1954). Dung beetles (Co1eopera; Scarabaeidae) and other insects in relation to human faeces in a hookworm area of Southern Georgia. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 3, 372–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Atlas Of Kenya (1970). Nairobi: Survey of Kenya.Google Scholar
Nelson, G. S., Pester, F. R. N. & Rickman, R. (1965). The significance of wild animals in the transmission of cestodes of medical importance in Kenya. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 59, 507–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ng'ang'a, J. M. (1974). The incidence of cysticercosis and hydatidosis in Kenya's livestock. In Parasitoses of Man and Animals in Africa (ed. Anderson, C. and Kilama, W. L.), pp. 315–21. Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Pawlowski, Z. & Schultz, M. G. (1972). Taeniasis and cysticercosis (Taenia saginata). In Advances in Parasitology, vol. 10 (ed. Dawes, B.), pp. 269343. New York and London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rees, P. H., Mngola, E. N., O'leary, P. & Pamba, H. O. (1974). Intestinal parasites. In Health and Disease in Kenya (ed. Vogel, L. C., Muller, A. S., Odingo, R. S., Onyango, Z. and de Geus, A.), pp. 339346. Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam: East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Ridley, D. S. & Hawgood, B. C. (1956). The value of formol–ether concentration of faecal Cysts and ova. Journal of Clinical Pathology 9, 74–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rijpstra, A. C., Smit, A. M. & Swellengrebel, N. H. (1967). How and where to search for the ova of Taenia saginata. Tropical and Geographic Medicine 13, 160–6.Google Scholar
Round, M. C. (1961). Observations on the possible role of filth flies in the epizootiology of bovine cysticercosis in Kenya. Journal of Hygiene 59, 505–13.Google ScholarPubMed
Shircore, T. O. (1916). A note on some helminthic diseases with special reference to the housefly as the natural carrier of the ova. Parasitology 8, 239–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, H. & Goldsmid, J. M. (1973). Cellophane tape as an aid to the detection of Taenia saginata eggs. Central African Journal of Medicine 19, 149–51.Google Scholar