Prevalência da contaminação e avaliação dos fatores de risco para enteroparasitos em hortaliças de Fortaleza-Ceará

Abstract

The present study has the goal to determine the prevalence of enteric parasites on vegetables, more specifically the lettuce (Lacuta sativa) from commercial or collective vegetable gardens of the city of Fortaleza, located in Northeastern Brazil, and to associate the findings with the environmental factors, the hygienic-sanitation conditions and the socio-economic situations locally. Initially, 165 vegetable gardens were identified spread over the city, of which, 57 were randomly chosen to have 5 unit samples examined, reaching a total of 285 vegetable units analyzed from each vegetable garden from July/99 to May/00. A unit sample was considered the whole plant independent of the size or weight. The parasite search was done through the spontaneous sedimentation in water and the centrifugal-flotation on zinc sulfate used to wash the units. A questioner was used to obtain the epidemiological data. In 100% of the vegetable gardens, at least one unit was contaminated. The following parasites were found on 73.3% of lettuces: Strongyloides sp (66,7%), ancylostomideous (17.5%), Ascaris lumbricoides (3.2%), Entamoeba sp, Trichuris sp, Isospora sp, Iodameba butschi (1.1%); Taenia sp, Toxocara sp (0.7%) and Shistosoma mansoni (0.4%). Among the positive samples, 54.4% had one single species and 18.9% had 2 or 3 different parasites identified. The Strongyloides prevalence presented statistical significance (p<0.05) for the absence of vegetables cleaning before exit and for worker’s age, and income. The other risk factors such as untreated irrigation water, proximity to pools and pollutes, accentuated ground sloping, the usage of untreated organic fertilizer, the presence of flying vectors and domestic animals, and the inexistence of inappropriate place for fecal evacuation by the workers, reached no statistic significance, despite the possible contribution to the elevated numbers that were found; that was probably related to the homogeneous ecologic conditions observed in the majority of the kitchen gardens studied.