Comment by yes_man

18 hours ago

Not OP but one reason is having young kids that can’t help bringing home everything that is spreading in daycare/kindergarten

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yes_man

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dpark  18 hours ago

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).

  • Epa095  18 hours ago 

      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...

    • dpark  16 hours ago

      That’s interesting, thanks. Looks like it’s 11%-ish in the US which is lower than the other cited countries but still more common than I would have guessed.

      2 replies →

  • SvenL  17 hours ago

    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  17 hours ago

    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.