UNCOMMON INTESTINAL PARASITES OF MAN IN THE 
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
REPORTS OF NEW CASES 
By BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ and MARcos A, TUBANGUI* 
Of the University of the Philippines, Les Baios 
INTRODUCTION 
Infestation of man with intestinal parasites is so prevalent 
in tropical countries that it is the absence rather than the 
presence of cysts and ova in stools that arouses attention. In 
the Philippien Islands the vast majority of the people, approxi- 
mately 85° per cent, harbor one or more intestinal parasites. 
With few exceptions, the latter are species of protozoa and 
nematodes; in other words, parasites that are usually trans- 
mitted from host to host by means of polluted water, contam- 
inated food, unclean hands, contact of the naked skin with 
soil infested with larve of parasites, etc. Intestinal parasites 
that are commonly encountered in Filipinos may be consid- 
ered, therefore, an index to lack of sanitary conditions and to 
unhygienic habits. 
In contrast to the almost universal occurrence in the Philip- 
pines of intestinal parasites in man that are conveyed from 
host to host directly through contact with cysts and ova is the 
rather uncommon occurrence of parasites that are conveyed 
from one person to another by intermediate hosts. Despite the 
surveys that have been made from time to time to determine 
the incidence of infestation of man in the Philippine Islands 
with intestinal parasites and the bearing of such parasitism on 
public health, comparatively few cases of infestation with flat- 
worms have been recorded, and in nearly all instances the im- 
portance of cestode infestation in man and the possibility of 
transmitting these parasites to domestic animals with the 
*Both authors assume responsibility for the new cases recorded in 
this paper; the senior author assumes full responsibility for the writing 
of the paper, for the review of the work of other investigators, and for the 
discussion of the significance of the several species of parasites that are 
considered in the paper. 
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