Gabriela Štrkolcová, Mária Goldová, Katarína Gajdošová
Background: The risk of newly emerging pathogens might arise also in developed European countries. Such pathogens
include also the soil-transmitted helminth – Strongyloides stercoralis. This intestinal parasite, the zoonotic potential of
which is applied in the circulation between carnivores and humans in immunodeficiency of various etiologies, was detected
in Eastern Slovakia in 1930s. The objective of the present paper is to provide the information on the latest diagnostics
methods, clinical manifestations, prevention, and therapy of strongyloidiasis, repeatedly detected in Eastern
Slovakia in children, dogs, and in soil.
Study group: The total numbers of individuals included in the study was 60 Roma children, 21 non-Roma children, and
30 dogs from the segregated settlement in Medzev. Soil from the settlement was subjected to examination as well.
Methods: Faecal samples were examined while applying three methods: Koga agar plates, the Baerman larvoscopic
method, and flotation methods according to Kozák/Magrová and Faust to prove other eggs of helminths and oocysts/
cysts of protozoa. The qualitative evidence of specific IgG antibodies against Strongyloides stercoralis in serum of children
was carried out using the Strongyloides IgG ELISA commercial test.
Results: Seroprevalence in Roma children was 33.3 %; in the majority group of children it was 23.8 %. In dogs, we confirmed
larvae in 13.3 % of dogs and in soil we detected infectious larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis in two samples
(14.3 %).
Conclusion: In our paper, we confirmed the presence of rhabditiform and filariform larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis
by a parasitological examination of dog excrements and soil, and by a serological examination in children and dogs.