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Updated: Aug 14, 2025
Cultivation of Heligmosomoides Polygyrus: An Immunomodulatory Nematode Parasite and its Secreted Products
Published on: April 6, 2015
Association of helminth infestation with childhood asthma: a nested case-control study
Chamara V Senaratna1, Piyumali K Perera2, Segarajasingam Arulkumaran3
1Allergy and Lung Health Unit (ALHU), Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Non-Communicable Disease Research Centre, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka.
Objectives:
The association between helminthiasis and asthma remains inconclusive but can only be investigated in counties where helminthiasis is transitioning from a high to low burden. We investigated this association using data from a childhood respiratory cohort in Sri Lanka.
Methods:
A case-control study was nested within a population-based cohort of children aged 6-14 years in Sri Lanka. The stool samples of 190 children with asthma and 190 children without asthma were analyzed to assess the burden of helminth infestation. Logistic regression models were fitted to investigate the association of gastrointestinal helminth species with asthma.
Results:
Helminthiasis in children with and without asthma was 23.3% (n = 44) and 15.3% (n = 23), respectively. Those with asthma were more likely to have helminthiasis (odds ratio 3.7; 95% confidence interval 1.7, 7.7; P = 0.001), particularly with Trichiuris trichura (odds ratio 4.5; 95% confidence interval 1.6, 12.3; P = 0.004). Helminth eggs per gram of feces were not associated with asthma (P >0.05).
Conclusion:
Our findings demonstrate a positive association between T. trichura infestation and asthma and point to the need to fully characterize this association to understand the likely immunological mechanism that drives it. This association highlights an important public health intervention in countries where these infestations are still prevalent, affecting 24% of the population worldwide.
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