CASE STUDY #1 A 12-year-old boy from a semi-rural area in the mountains of the Northern Philippines is

out of school for summer vacation. He plays in a small creek during the summer. Upon using the restroom,
the boy chanced to see a long and slender worm in his stool. He had suffered from mild abdominal
discomfort along with periodic bouts of diarrhea. When he called his mother’s attention to an “earthworm” in
his stool, she took him to his pediatrician. What was the probable diagnosis, and how would the diagnosis
have been made?

 Considering that the child indicated that an “earthworm” had been spotted in his stool, it is highly
probable that the worm is Ascaris lumbricoides, also referred to as a large intestinal roundworm.
Correspondingly, it is claimed to have the features of a male Ascaris lumbricoides, particularly
because of its length and slenderness. It is corroborated by the child’s given symptoms, which
include mild abdominal pain with periodic bouts of diarrhea. These symptoms could possibly be the
result of an accumulation of the roundworms in the intestinal tract, which mostly require surgery to
be eliminated or extracted from the intestinal tract. The child is diagnosed with Ascariasis or a
round worm infection in light of the signs mentioned. A stool test was carried out to confirm the
diagnosis, and the stool sample was analyzed for eggs and larvae with the use of a microscope.