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dpark • yesterday at 10:32 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

Are there areas in the developed world where this is common? I’ve never heard of anyone regularly taking anti parasitic medication because their kids kept bringing home parasites from daycare. I had a friend whose son was prescribed medicine for pinworms once when he was fairly young (mostly as a precaution).

Replies

Epa095 • yesterday at 10:44 PM

  Pinworms are particularly common in children, with prevalence rates in this age group having been reported as high as 61% in India, 50% in England, 39% in Thailand, 37% in Sweden, and 29% in Denmark. [1]
Remember that

  prevalence is the proportion of a particular population found to be affected by a medical condition (typically a disease or a risk factor such as smoking or seatbelt use) at a specific time.
So it is not just that percentage has had it at any point in their life, it is that percentage that has it at any time.

And yes, kids. Pinworm is literally called 'children worm' here.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm_(parasite)#burkhart200...

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gehsty • yesterday at 10:47 PM

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/threadworm/background-informa...

NICE estimate 20-30% of kids 4-11 have an infestation. I have three kids in this bracket and yeh this tracks

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SvenL • yesterday at 11:13 PM

Yes, it’s fairly common infection in children. I mean they don’t wash carefully their hands, they put everything in their mouth - it would be a real surprise if they would not catch it.

exasperaited • yesterday at 11:19 PM

I believe I know an immune-compromised adult who was taking anti-parasitics for more than two years due to workplace (care context) reinfections. I say “believe” because these are two things people talk about in coded, careful ways. It might be a little more common than polite conversation ever really reveals.

For example if you know anyone who raised early concerns about antivaxxers causing short supply of ivermectin formulations for human use during the pandemic. More or less anyone who knew what ivermectin was at that point in time was either a farmer, a vetinarian, a doctor… or a patient with a condition.