Good day everyone. For today’s report, we will be discussing case study 2.

1 which is about
intestinal nematodes.

Case study 2.1 goes this way, A mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to her pediatrician
complaining of abdominal discomfort, slight fever, and diarrhea a couple of times during the last
2 weeks. The night before the visit, the child vomited an earthworm-like organism into the toilet.

Question number 1: What is the probable identity of this parasite (genus and species)? Support
your answer.

Based on the symptoms of the infected individual and the photo of the vomited parasite, we
identified the parasite as Ascaris lumbricoides, from the Phylum: Nematoda (read the class, etc)

Ascaris lumbricoides is the most common intestinal nematode of man. This parasite has an
elongated and cylindrical body with white, cream, or pinkish-yellow color. It has a terminal
mouth with three lips and sensory papillae.

The male Ascaris lumbricoides measures 10 - 31 cm and the female at 22 - 35 cm in length

Females are bigger and have a pointed posterior end, as shown in the upper right picture. While
Males are smaller and have a ventrally-curved posterior end with two spicules.

Ascaris is a soil-transmitted helminth and children ages 5 - 15 years have the highest intensities
of infection. The infected 10-year-old child falls in this age group. Children are particularly
vulnerable since they risk ingesting embryonated Ascaris eggs while playing in soil contaminated
with human feces.

The symptoms experienced by the infected child are abdominal discomfort, slight fever, and
diarrhea.
A majority of Ascaris infections are asymptomatic, but in mild or moderate ascariasis, the Adult
Ascaris lumbricoides residing in the intestine may induce mild abdominal pains, cause a slight
fever, and diarrhea. At times, due to the erratic migration of adult worms, they may be
regurgitated and vomited.

So our Case Study report ends here. I am Reca Marie Frias, and on behalf of miss Flores, miss
Fuego, miss Gallego, and miss Harder, thank you so much for listening.