Intestinal parasitic infections in Ukrainian war refugee children living in Poland

Introduction: The armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in February 2022 forced millions of Ukrainian citizens to flee their country and seek refuge mainly in the European Union. Many of them found shelter in Poland. There are now over one million Ukrainian war refugees living in Poland, including 500,000 children. The attention of Polish medical services has been recently drawn to the previously unknown epidemiological status of infectious and invasive diseases in the paediatric population of Ukrainian refugees. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in the group of Ukrainian children living in Poland. Materials and methods: The study involved performing parasitological examination of stool samples collected in May 2023 from 37 Ukrainian refugee children aged 3–7 years, who were living in Szczecin (Poland) and were attending a preschool set up to address the needs of the local Ukrainian community. Stool samples were tested by light microscopy using three different methods (direct smear, decantation, flotation) at the Department of Epidemiology and Tropical Medicine at the Military Institute of Medicine – National Research Institute. Results: Intestinal parasites were detected in 3 out of 37 children (8.1% of the study group; there was one case of infection with Ascaris lumbricoides and two cases of infection with Blastocystis spp.). The infected children’s parents or guardians did not observe any diarrhoeas or other gastrointestinal symptoms within 6 months prior to the examination. Conclusions: The presence of intestinal parasites among Ukrainian war refugee children living in Poland justifies the screening for parasitic diseases in this population. The obtained results will allow to take appropriate preventive and therapeutic actions.