Occurrence of Intestinal Parasite-induced Anaemia and Its Association with Thrombocytosis: A Study from Riverside Communities in the State of Pará-Brazil

Aims: The objective of this study was to verify the occurrence of anaemia associated with intestinal parasites and their involvement in anemic patients’ platelet levels.

Study Design: Population-based descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of the Study: School of Pharmacy, at Federal University of Para, and Program Lights in the Amazon, between May/2013 and June/2015.

Methods: The participants were 114 individuals from riverside communities, which have been subject to blood count (automated methodology, using the hematology analyzer Sysmex XE2100) and parasitological examination (qualitative method of Lutz or Hoffman, Pons and Janer).

Results: The prevalence of anaemia in the individuals studied was 41.23% (47). Of these, 34.04% (16) had microcytosis and hypochromia. There was positive diagnosis of intestinal parasites in 84.21% (96) of the total population surveyed, with a prevalence of 95.74% (45) and 76.11% (67) for the anemic and non-anemic groups, respectively. Significant association was found between anaemia and parasitic diseases (p = 0.0102). The anemic group differed significantly from the non-anemic group in relation to platelet count (p = 0.0242). We also observed a higher incidence of thrombocytosis in anemic individuals, which corresponded to 14.89%, while thrombocytosis in the non-anemic group occurred in 4.26% of the individuals.

Conclusion: The prevalence of intestinal parasites and anaemia detected in this study confirms that these are important public health problems in the surveyed riverside communities. The occurrence of anaemia in individuals infected with parasites was significantly higher than in the non-infected group, which makes intestinal parasitosis a determinant and aggravating factor for anaemia. In addition, the higher incidence of thrombocytosis in anemic individuals was accompanied by a higher blood count.