Maternal geohelminth infections are associated with an increased susceptibility to geohelminth infection in children: A case-control study

Background: children of mothers infected with soil-transmitted helminths (sth) may have an increased susceptibility to sth infection. methods and findings: we did a case-control study nested in a birth cohort in ecuador. data from 1,004 children aged 7 months to 3 years were analyzed. cases were defined as children with ascaris lumbricoides and/or trichuris trichiura,controls without. exposure was defined as maternal infection with a. lumbricoides and/or t. trichiura,detected during the third trimester of pregnancy. the analysis was restricted to households with a documented infection to control for infection risk. children of mothers with sth infections had a greater risk of infection compared to children of uninfected mothers (adjusted or 2.61,95% ci: 1.88-3.63,p<0.001). this effect was particularly strong in children of mothers with both sth infections (adjusted or: 5.91,95% ci: 3.55-9.81,p<0.001). newborns of infected mothers had greater levels of plasma il-10 than those of uninfected mothers (p = 0.033),and there was evidence that cord blood il-10 was increased among newborns who became infected later in childhood (p = 0.060). conclusion: our data suggest that maternal sth infections increase susceptibility to infection during early childhood,an effect that was associated with elevated il-10 in cord plasma.