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An evaluation of the agar plate method for the detection of Strongyloides stercoralis in northern Thailand.

An examination of the stools from school-children in northern Thailand was performed in order to compare the efficacy of a new method--the agar plate method--for the detection of Strongyloides stercoralis with traditional methods. Twenty-three positive specimens (15.5%) from a total of 148 specimens were detected as follows: 18 cases by the agar plate method, 13 cases by direct stool smear, 11 cases by filter paper culture, and four cases by the formalin-ether method (MGL). On the basis of the above results, the agar plate method appeared to be more efficient than traditional methods for detecting Strongyloides in human stool samples. Other positive factors in its favour were ease of manipulation and low cost. There were some problems with using this method. Five cases shown to be positive by traditional methods were negative in the agar plate method, and it was necessary to discriminate Strongyloides microscopically from other similar nematode larvae, especially in an area, such as northern Thailand, with a high prevalence of hookworms.