Seroprevalence of IStrongyloides stercolaris/I in Patients about to Receive Immunosuppressive Treatment in Gran Canaria

Strongyloides stercoralis infection is generally asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, but in the immunosuppressed host, it is associated with more severe and complicated forms with a worse prognosis. S. stercoralis seroprevalence was studied in 256 patients before receiving immunosuppressive treatmen...

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Published inTropical medicine and infectious disease Vol. 8; no. 3
Main Authors Carranza-Rodríguez, Cristina, López-Delgado, Laura, Granados-Magan, Álvaro, Pérez-Arellano, José-Luis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published MDPI AG 01.03.2023
Subjects
Analysis
Banks (Finance)
Care and treatment
Health aspects
Immunoglobulin G
Infection
Kidneys
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Prognosis
Transplantation
Spain
Latin America
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Summary:Strongyloides stercoralis infection is generally asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, but in the immunosuppressed host, it is associated with more severe and complicated forms with a worse prognosis. S. stercoralis seroprevalence was studied in 256 patients before receiving immunosuppressive treatment (before kidney transplantation or starting biological treatments). As a control group, serum bank data of 642 individuals representative of the population of the Canary Islands were retrospectively analyzed. To avoid false positives due to cross-reactivity with other similar helminth antigens present in the study area, IgG antibodies to Toxocara spp. and Echinococcus spp. were evaluated in cases positive for Strongyloides. The data show this is a prevalent infection: 1.1% of the Canarian population, 2.38% of Canarian individuals awaiting organ transplants and 4.8% of individuals about to start biological agents. On the other hand, strongyloidiasis can remain asymptomatic (as observed in our study population). There are no indirect data, such as country of origin or eosinophilia, to help raise suspicion of the disease. In summary, our study suggests that screening for S. stercoralis infection should be performed in patients who receive immunosuppressive treatment for solid organ transplantation or biological agents, in line with previous publications.
ISSN:2414-6366
2414-6366
DOI:10.3390/tropicalmed8030181