[Strongyloidiasis in former prisoners of war and internees in Southeast Asia during World War II].

A survey was performed to estimate the prevalence of chronic strongyloidiasis among 145 Dutch ex-prisoners of war who had been working on the Burma-Thailand railway in 1943-1945, and 56 ex-internees in civil camps in the former Dutch East Indies. No infections were found in the latter group while in the Burma group 26 men (17.9%) had S. stercoralis larvae in their stools. Many of them suffered from larva currens, an urticarial skin disorder, cured by treatment. Examination of fresh stool specimens with the Baermann concentration technique gave better results than faecal cultures and microscopy of duodenal aspirate. Mean IgE level and eosinophil count were significantly higher in infected persons but the ranges are too wide to use these tests in diagnosing individual cases.