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Background: Imported strongyloidiasis in non-endemic countries has increasingly been diagnosed. The aim of the present study is to describe the main epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with imported strongyloidiasis attended in a referral International Health Unit and to detect trend changes over a 12-year period., Methods: This is an observational retrospective study including all imported strongyloidiasis cases seen at the International Health Unit Vall d'Hebron-Drassanes (Barcelona, Spain) from January 2009 to December 2020. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics from included patients were collected., Results: Overall, 865 cases of imported strongyloidiasis were diagnosed, of whom 472 (54.6 %) were men and mean age was 38.7 (SD 13.4) years. Most cases were diagnosed in migrants (830, 96 %). The distribution of the geographic origin was: Latin America (561, 67.6 %), Sub-Saharan Africa (148, 17.8 %), Asia (113, 13.6 %), North Africa (5, 0.6 %), Eastern Europe (2, 0.2 %), and North America (1, 0.1 %). The main reasons for consultation at the Unit were screening of health status (371, 42.9 %), laboratory test alteration (367, 42.4 %), gastrointestinal symptoms (56, 6.5 %), cutaneous symptoms (26, 3 %), and other clinical symptoms (45, 5.2 %). An increase in the number of cases was observed in the last years of the study period., Conclusions: Imported strongyloidiasis has increasingly been diagnosed in our referral unit, mostly due to screening strategies implementation. Most of the patients were young migrants coming from Latin America, with no symptoms at the time of diagnosis. The optimization of screening strategies will increase the detection and treatment of cases, reducing potential complications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Strongyloidiasis is a nematode infection caused by Strongyloides stercoralis. Previous studies have addressed the possibility of the parasite to establish a complex relationship with the host that could affect the risk of developing diabetes mellitus or modify its presentation. This study aims to evaluate the potential impact of strongyloidiasis in diabetes mellitus and other metabolic diseases., Methods: Case-control observational retrospective study that included 95 S. stercoralis-infected patients and 83 non-infected individuals. Epidemiological and clinical variables were retrieved from medical records, and a statistical analysis was carried out to explore any association between strongyloidiasis and diabetes mellitus and other metabolic diseases., Results: Most of the patients were men (99, 55.60%) with a mean age of 42.53 ± SD 14 years. Twelve (6.70%) patients were diabetic; 30 (16.90%) presented arterial hypertension; 28 (15.70%) had dyslipidaemia; and 10 (5.60%) had thyroid pathology. When comparing patients with strongyloidiasis and uninfected patients, no differences were found regarding diabetes mellitus or other metabolic diseases., Conclusions: The results obtained in the present study do not confirm any type of association between strongyloidiasis and diabetes mellitus or other metabolic diseases., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of immunosuppressed patients with imported strongyloidiasis in a non-endemic setting, and to compare these results with non-immunosuppressed patients. This is a case-control substudy from a larger observational retrospective study that included all patients with strongyloidiasis registered in the +REDIVI Spanish Collaborative Network. Overall, 1245 patients with imported strongyloidiasis were included. From these, 80 (6.4%) patients had some kind of immunosuppression. Three (3.8%) patients had a hyperinfection syndrome, and 34 (52.3%) patients had eosinophilia. The percentages of positive results of the formalin-ether technique, the fecal culture and serology were 12.3%, 21.1% and 95.4%, respectively. When comparing the main characteristics, immunosuppressed patients had higher proportion of severe clinical manifestations and lower proportion of eosinophilia. No differences were found regarding yield of microbiological techniques and treatment response. These results stress the importance of strongyloidiasis screening among immunosuppressed patients coming from endemic areas. Serological tests have an acceptable sensitivity to be used as a screening tool.

Objectives: To provide information regarding the prevalence of strongyloidiasis among migrants coming from Strongyloides stercoralis-endemic areas who reside in Spain., Methods: Systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis of studies showing prevalence of S. stercoralis infection among migrants from Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and Oceania who reside in Spain. We included articles published until 30 April 2019 without language restriction. The keywords used for the search included 'Strongyloides stercoralis', 'strongyloidiasis', 'Spain', 'screening' and 'migrants'., Results: Twenty-four studies were included in the review and meta-analysis, comprising 12 386 screened people. Eleven studies (7020 patients) evaluated the presence of S. stercoralis infection only through investigation of larvae in faeces, showing an overall prevalence of 1% (95%CI 1-1%). Thirteen studies (5366 patients) used a serological test, showing an overall prevalence of 14% (95%CI 11-17%). Strongyloidiasis seroprevalence was 20% (95%CI 15-24%) among migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, 14% (95%CI 10-18%) among those from Latin America and 8% (95%CI 5-11%) among migrants from North Africa., Conclusions: Migrants coming from strongyloidiasis-endemic areas living in Spain had a high S. stercoralis infection prevalence, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. This population should be screened using serology as the most sensitive test for S. stercoralis infection. This could be easily implemented at primary care level., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)