Maternal geohelminth infections are associated with an increased susceptibility to geohelminth infection in children: a case-control study.
Children of mothers infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STH) may have an increased susceptibility to STH infection.We did a case-control study nested in a birth cohort in Ecuador. Data from 1,004 children aged 7 months to 3 years were analyzed. Cases were defined as children with Ascaris lumbr...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2012-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3404107?pdf=render |
| Summary: | Children of mothers infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STH) may have an increased susceptibility to STH infection.We did a case-control study nested in a birth cohort in Ecuador. Data from 1,004 children aged 7 months to 3 years were analyzed. Cases were defined as children with Ascaris lumbricoides and/or Trichuris trichiura, controls without. Exposure was defined as maternal infection with A. lumbricoides and/or T. trichiura, detected during the third trimester of pregnancy. The analysis was restricted to households with a documented infection to control for infection risk. Children of mothers with STH infections had a greater risk of infection compared to children of uninfected mothers (adjusted OR 2.61, 95% CI: 1.88-3.63, p<0.001). This effect was particularly strong in children of mothers with both STH infections (adjusted OR: 5.91, 95% CI: 3.55-9.81, p<0.001). Newborns of infected mothers had greater levels of plasma IL-10 than those of uninfected mothers (p=0.033), and there was evidence that cord blood IL-10 was increased among newborns who became infected later in childhood (p=0.060).Our data suggest that maternal STH infections increase susceptibility to infection during early childhood, an effect that was associated with elevated IL-10 in cord plasma. |
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| ISSN: | 1935-2727 1935-2735 |