Pathogenic fungal contamination in soil samples from Thailand: an overview
V Wiwanitkit
Keywords
contamination, fungus, soil
Citation
V Wiwanitkit. Pathogenic fungal contamination in soil samples from Thailand: an overview. The Internet Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2007 Volume 6 Number 2.
Abstract
Soil contamination with pathogenic fungus is a health concern in tropical developing countries. There are many important soil-transmitted fungus in Thailand, i.e.
Introduction
Soil contamination with pathogenic fungus is a health concern in tropical developing countries. Diseases transmitted by soil are common in many tropical areas, including Thailand. Several efforts for control of those diseases are in place [1]. There are many important soil-transmitted fungus in Thailand, i.e.
Materials and methods
Primary data
This study was designed as a descriptive retrospective study. A literature review on the papers concerning blood lead level among several risk occupations in Thailand was performed. The author performed the literature review from database of the published works cited in the Index Medicus and Science Citation Index using key word “soil” and “fungus”. The reports that lacked English text or contained no complete data were excluded for further analysis.
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics were used in analysis. For each report, the prevalence of soil contamination was extracted. The summarization to find overall prevalence was performed. In addition, the correlation between the prevalence and setting was also assessed using Chi-square test. All the statistical analyses in this study were made using SPSS 7.0 for Windows Program.
Result
According to the search there are 6 reports [2,3,4,5,6,7] covering 1774 soil samples on soil parasitic contamination in Thailand (December 2007). The details of each study were presented in Table 1. Overall prevalence of contamination is equal to 8.7 %. There is no significant correlation between setting and prevalence.
Figure 1
Discussion
Although the deep fungal infection is not the main infectious disease in the tropics the increase rate can be observed within the past 2 decades due to the emerging of human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV). Mainly, the fungal agents causing the systemic fungal infection in HIV infected case are soil contaminants [8,9]. In some cases, those pathogenic fungi can also infect immunocompetent cases. Disease surveillance by soil contamination surveying is a recommended preventive protocol.
According to this work, the author analyzed the data on pathogenic contamination in Thailand. As high as 8.7 % of soil samples pose pathogenic fungus contamination. However, a variation of the contamination rate from study to study is very high. This might due to the fact that fungus usually colony in a very specific site with proper environment.
Correspondence to
Viroj Wiwanitkit Wiwanitkit House, 38/167, Bangkhae Bangkok Thailand 10160 Email: wviroj@yahoo.com