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Maternal Geohelminth Infections Are Associated with an Increased Susceptibility to Geohelminth Infection in Children: A Case-Control Study

2012; Public Library of Science; Volume: 6; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pntd.0001753

1935-2735

Raaj S. Mehta, Alejandro Rodríguez, Martha Chico, Irene Guadalupe, Nely Broncano, Carlos Sandoval, Fernanda Tupiza, Edward Mitre, Philip J. Cooper,

Parasitic Infections and Diagnostics

Background Children of mothers infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STH) may have an increased susceptibility to STH infection. Methods and Findings We did a case-control study nested in a birth cohort in Ecuador. Data from 1,004 children aged 7 months to 3 years were analyzed. Cases were defined as children with Ascaris lumbricoides and/or Trichuris trichiura, controls without. Exposure was defined as maternal infection with A. lumbricoides and/or T. trichiura, detected during the third trimester of pregnancy. The analysis was restricted to households with a documented infection to control for infection risk. Children of mothers with STH infections had a greater risk of infection compared to children of uninfected mothers (adjusted OR 2.61, 95% CI: 1.88–3.63, p<0.001). This effect was particularly strong in children of mothers with both STH infections (adjusted OR: 5.91, 95% CI: 3.55–9.81, p<0.001). Newborns of infected mothers had greater levels of plasma IL-10 than those of uninfected mothers (p = 0.033), and there was evidence that cord blood IL-10 was increased among newborns who became infected later in childhood (p = 0.060). Conclusion Our data suggest that maternal STH infections increase susceptibility to infection during early childhood, an effect that was associated with elevated IL-10 in cord plasma.