Pinworm infections associated with risk of psychiatric disorders-A nationwide cohort study in Taiwan: Pinworm infections and psychiatric disorders.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the association between males with pinworm infections and the risk of developing psychiatric disorders. METHOD: A total of 2044 enrolled patients, with 511 pinworm subjects and 1533 unexposed subjects (1:3) matched for sex, age and index year, from Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) from 2000 to 2015, selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). After adjusting for confounding factors, the Cox regression model was used to compare the risk of developing psychiatric disorders during the 15 years of follow-up. RESULTS: Of all the enrollees, 24 in the pinworm cohort and 18 in the unexposed cohort (343.10 vs 84.96 per 100,000 person-year) developed psychiatric disorders. The Cox regression model revealed that, after adjusting for sex, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region, and comorbidities, the adjusted HR was 4.581 (95% CI: 2.214-9.480, p < .001, p < .001). Pinworm infections were associated with the increased risk in anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and sleep disorders, respectively. CONCLUSION: Patients who suffered from pinworm infections have a higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders, and this finding should be considered as a timely reminder for the clinicians to provide much more attention for these patients because of their mental health issues.

A case of enterobiasis presenting as post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD): a curious case of the infection with predominant mental health symptoms, presenting for the first time in the settings of a refugee camp.

Enterobiasis (oxyuriasis) is a common infection in human caused by Enterobius vermicularis (E. vermicularis), a human intestinal helminth. Because of the easy way of its transmission among people, it has an extremely high prevalence in overcrowded conditions, such as nurseries and primary schools. Oxyuriasis's symptoms are extremely diverse in children, ranging from nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, irritability, recurrent cellulitis, loss of appetite, nightmares and endometritis. Here we report a curious case of oxyuriasis in the settings of a refugee camp in Greece. The patient was a 10-year old Syrian female, who presented with unusual and vague symptoms like insomnia and irritability. Given the violent background of the Syrian warzone that the patient had escaped, she was firstly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before eventually getting correctly diagnosed with enterobiasis. This infection is the first documented case of enterobiasis in the settings of a refugee camp and can highlight the unsanitary living conditions that refugees have to endure in those camps.

Impact of health educational programmes on the prevalence of enterobiasis in schoolchildren in Thailand.

Enterobiasis is a worldwide prevalent disease particularly in low income areas. The budget needed for the prevention, treatment and eradication of the disease has thus far frustrated the limited budgets of global public health systems. A study was undertaken to determine if education in addition to medical treatment of enterobiasis could make a difference to the rates of infection. A total of 777 children (399 male and 378 female) from 11 elementary schools in five districts of Samut Prakan Province, Thailand were examined between December 2000 and March 2002. In five of the 11 schools studied, medical treatments were applied, followed by a programme of educating the children in the prevention of infection. Children in the remaining six schools received medical treatment only. The study showed a decrease in infections among children who received supplementary education. This decrease was significant in comparison to the decrease shown among children who received medical treatment only. The study therefore showed that educating high risk individuals played a key role in the prevention of enterobiasis.

"Effects of Enterobius vermicularis infection on intelligence quotient (I.Q) and anthropometric measurements of Egyptian rural children".

Two hundred and thirty nine children (114 boys and 125 girls, aged 6-12 years, infected with Enterobius vermicularis worm (E.v.) were selected from 637 originally examined children (329 boys and 308 girls)., derived from El-Katta village, Giza Governorate. The diagnosis was made according to history, physical examination, urine and stools examination, as well as peri-anal swab. The physical growth of these children was investigated by taking some anthropometric measurements which included body weight, standing height, head circumference, upper arm circumf., and triceps skinfold thickness. I.Q. was determined by using Goodenough "draw-a-ma" test. Blood hemoglobin concentration was also determined using a spectrophotometric method. The prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis among our original sample was 43.8%. Mean I.Q. of Enterobius vermicularis infected children was statistically lower than that of their non-infected peers (t = 2.02, P = 0.04), while the non-infected peers (t = 2.42, P = 0.02). Infected male children showed significantly lower I.Q. than infected females (t = 2.02, P = 0.04) while the non infected children showed no sex difference. However physical growth and hemoglobin concentration of Enterobius vermicularis infected children were not statistically different from those of the non-infected control peers, in all age and sex subgroups.