Scaling down of a deworming programme among school-age children after a thirty-year successful intervention in the Bolivian Chaco.

Objective: Preventive chemotherapy is the WHO-recommended control method for soil-transmitted helminthiases. In the Bolivian Chaco, 6-monthly single-dose mebendazole delivery to school-age children achieved a dramatic decrease in soil-transmitted helminthiases prevalence between 1987 and 2013. Consequently, in September 2016, preventive chemotherapy delivery was interrupted in nine rural communities.

Seroepidemiological trend of strongyloidiasis in the Bolivian Chaco (1987-2013) in the absence of disease-specific control measures.

Objectives: The prevalence of Strongyloides stercoralis infections is grossly underestimated because infections go mostly undetected, although they can persist for a lifetime due to the auto-infective cycle. In the Bolivian Chaco, the prevalence of soil-transmitted nematodes dropped dramatically in the past 25 years, but the mebendazole used for preventive chemotherapy has no effect on S. stercoralis.

Intestinal parasitic infections and associated epidemiological drivers in two rural communities of the Bolivian Chaco.

Introduction: In 2013 a coproparasitological survey was carried out in two rural communities of the Bolivian Chaco to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) and to investigate on possible infection drivers through a questionnaire interview.

Methodology: Faecal samples were examined by microscopy. Samples positive for Entamoeba histolytica complex and Blastocystis were molecularly examined to identify the species/subtypes involved.