| Summary: | According to the World Health Organization (WHO), soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) are amongst the 17 most neglected tropical diseases and affect more than one billion people in the world's poorest regions. This study aims to evaluate parasite contamination in the sand of children playgrounds in public squares and parks in the municipality of São Paulo. Sand samples from 15 sites were collected in March 2016 and analyzed for parasites using Willis-Mollay (1921) and Faust (1939) techniques. Thirty percent (5/15) of the samples were positive for at least one kind of parasite detected by one of the techniques. Parasite eggs of Ancylostoma sp showed the highest incidence in the samples. These findings indicate that sand contamination in public children playgrounds is considerably important, given the high transmission risk of parasitic diseases to visitors of public squares and parks.
|
|---|
