Palmer D R, Bradley M, Bundy D A
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Department of Immunology, Washington DC 20307-5100, USA.
Bull World Health Organ. 1996;74(4):381-6.
Described is an epidemiological investigation of hookworm infections in a rural community in Zimbabwe, where Necator americanus is the only human helminth species present. Among a cohort of 120 individuals the overall prevalence of infection was 78%. Intensity of infection was quantified both as egg counts (range: 0-2563 eggs per g of stool) and worm burden (range: 0-100 worms). Although both these measures provide useful quantitative data, they are tedious to determine in large-scale epidemiological studies and may present social and logistic difficulties. As an alternative screening method, we therefore investigated isotype-specific responses to adult worm antigens of N. americanus. The results show that specific IgG4 responses correlate positively and significantly with both measures of intensity and may be a useful marker of hookworm infection.
本文描述了在津巴布韦一个农村社区开展的一项关于钩虫感染的流行病学调查，该社区仅存在美洲板口线虫这一种人体寄生虫。在120名研究对象组成的队列中，总体感染率为78%。感染强度通过虫卵计数（范围：每克粪便0 - 2563个虫卵）和虫负荷（范围：0 - 100条虫）进行量化。尽管这两种测量方法都能提供有用的定量数据，但在大规模流行病学研究中确定这些数据很繁琐，并且可能会带来社会和后勤方面的困难。因此，作为一种替代筛查方法，我们研究了对美洲板口线虫成虫抗原的同种型特异性反应。结果表明，特异性IgG4反应与感染强度的两种测量方法均呈显著正相关，可能是钩虫感染的一个有用标志物。
