LAUSR

INTRODUCTION Helminthiasis is an infectious disease caused by intestinal parasites that affect people and are usually caused by Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworms, such as Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus2. Distributed all over the world, it affects men and animals. These parasites occur in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Considered a third world country disease and neglected, by lack of basic sanitation, climate change, international travel, migration flows, resistance to chemotherapy if treated ineffectively tend to evolve to chronicity and incurability3,4. They cause abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, heartburn, diarrhea, and gastric ulcerative lesions, and colonization by Helicobacter pylori. Complementary endoscopic examinations are very useful in diagnostic confirmation3; however, there are faster and less honorable ways to identify the infection. According to experts, parasitosis is the most widespread disease in the human and animal population. Human pathogenesis appears to be related to the parasite strain, host immune resistance, and acquired infection form1. With the use of chemotherapy for organ and bone marrow transplantation, and, with the onset of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, the incidence of opportunistic infection by parasites has increased3.