Parasitosis en frutas y verduras del mercado 12 de Abril de Cuenca, periodo julio - diciembre 2023

Abstract

Parasitic diseases are prevalent worldwide, affecting the health and life expectancy of millions of people. Foodborne diseases are mainly of parasitic origin, being fruits and vegetables a vehicle of transmission, so that when consumed without prior washing they post a risk to human health. The objective of the study was to determine the frequency of parasites in fruits and vegetables for human consumption in the Mercado 12 de Abril in the city of Cuenca, during the period July - December 2023. This study was a descriptive, prospective cross-sectional study, for this purpose, it was conformed by the universe of 182 fruit and vegetable vendors of the Mercado 12 de Abril of Cuenca, collecting 130 samples, of which 65 are fruits and 65 are vegetables. A survey was then applied to the fruit and vegetable vendors in order to obtain data on the handling and storage of the products. Data analysis was performed using Excel and SPSS Statistics test version 29.0. The results obtained show that there is a prevalence of 53.07% of contaminated samples, 16.15% corresponds to fruits and 36.92% to vegetables. The fruit with the highest prevalence of parasites is blackberry with 5.38%; in the case of vegetables, lettuce and spinach with 8.46%. Among the causal agents of parasitic in fruits and vegetables were: Endolimax nana, Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, Entamoeba coli and Giardia lamblia. Regarding the study variables applied in the survey, contamination is related to the place of storage (32.3%), conservation in the environment (18.5%) and hygiene habits (73.8%) by not washing the products before sale.