Parasitic infection of man on Kar Kar Island, New Guinea

The prevalence of protozoan and helminth parasites of the intestinal tract in a Papua New Guinea island with a population of 16,800 was assessed by surveys of a series of randomly selected villages. There were significant differences in the severity of infection with these parasites between the two linguistic groups inhabiting the eastern and western halves of the island. Blood examinations for malaria and microfilariae also differed. It is thought that these differences reflect obscure microenvironmental factors in what would appear to be an epidemiologically homogeneous population.