Incidence of intestinal parasitism in allergic children.

Enteroparasites rarely reach limits of clinical severity although their different manifestations oblige one to consult pediatricians and other specialists. In our cases, patients consulted the Department of Allergology for the presentation of recurrent urticarial reactions, recurrent cough and other manifestations that can be interpreted as allergic in origin. It is the objective of this present study to carry out a review and a statistical study of the incidence of intestinal parasitism in children who consulted for some type of allergic manifestation. We intend to evaluate the unfavorable effects that enteroparasites produce in these patients which can perpetuate the clinical symptomatology. Six hundred and eleven children with ages ranging from 2 to 12 years, and who were attended in our allergology consultancy during a 2 year period, were studied. An intracutaneous test to the different group of food and inhalant antigens, stool examination and investigation of enterobius was carried out on all of them. On 37 children an "in vitro" test to evaluate cellular and humoral immunity was carried out aside from the other explorations mentioned.