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Correspondence

Indian Pediatr 2018;55: 616

Treat Worm Infestation Before Proceeding Further in Cases of Anemia: Authors Reply

 

Manish Narang1 and Amarender Singh Puri2

1Department of Pediatrics, University College of Medical Sciences, and 2Department of Gastroenterology, GB Pant Institute of PGMER; New Delhi, India.
Email: [email protected]

 

   


We thank the readers for their interest. In our study, stool examination was done on two consecutive days for identification of parasitic infection. Five cases with iron- deficiency anemia and six controls had worm infestation. Bleeding manifestations and occult blood loss on stool examination was not seen in any patient. Worm infestation was not an exclusion criteria in our study. Work-up for celiac disease in children with iron deficiency anemia was performed only for the research purpose. For clinical management of anemia, irrespective of presence of worm infestation, oral iron therapy should be the first line of treatment and other conditions should be suspected if anemia does not respond to iron therapy, or may be if anemia is severe, as documented in our study. Moreover, the benefits of anti-helminthic therapy are seen with hookworm infestation, and not with other parasites.


 

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