USAID's NTD Program

Roundworm: Ascariasis

Epidemiology

Ascariasis infection is highly prevalent and geographically widely spread. Many factors, including the high number of eggs produced per female worm (up to 200,000 eggs per day for about one year)^1-2, the properties of the eggs, environmental conditions, and poor socioeconomic settings facilitate the spread of the organism, and thus determine the geographic distribution of the disease.¹

Children, especially those suffering from malnutrition, are infected more often than adults, the most common age group being 3 to 8 year olds. Children often times become infected after putting their hands on their mouths after playing in contaminated soil. Eating uncooked food grown in contaminated soil or irrigated with inadequately treated wastewater is another frequent avenue of infection.

Learn more about roundworm:

• Symptoms
• Life Cycle
• Diagnosis
• Treatment, Prevention, and Control
• Back to Roundworm Overview

References

1. World Health Organization: Prevention and control of schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminthiasis. Report of a WHO expert committee, WHO Technical Report Series 912. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002.
2. Crompton DWT: Ascaris and ascariasis. Adv Parasitol. 48:285, 2001.