Dr. Kassai Tibor szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 1. (Budapest, 1968)

Parasit. Hung. 1. 69-76. 1968 The Frequency of Infections by Oral Protozoa in Budapest Dr. Mátyás Pál ARADI Institute for Public Health and Epidemiology, Budapest The protozoan -species Trichomonas tenax Müller« 1773, and Ent amoeba gingivalis Gros, 1849, parasitize the human oral cavity. Much information was published on their distribution by BRDMPT (2), DOFLEIN et REICHENOW (4), PAUST et RÜSSEL (6), HEGNER (8), JIROVEC (10), L.ŐRINCZ (il), and ZOLTAI (15), but the clinical and public health importance of oral protozoa is as yet insufficiently investigated. Frequencies of 30-73 per cent of infection by E. gingivalis were demonstrated in populations examined respectively by ABDULABEKOV; (1), DE CARNERI (3), PISCHER (7), JEPPS (9), JIROTEC (10), POPOPP et al. (12), and WESTPHA1 (14). According to HEGNER (8), about one half of the human population is infected by this protozoon. T. tenax

, on the other hand, seems to be slightly rarer; DE CARNERI (3), JEPPS (9), JIROVEC (10), and WESTPHA1 (13) demonstrated it in only 4-53 per cent of cases examined. HEGNER (8) estimates its. frequency around 10-30 per cent. In Hungary, B. FARKAS (5) investigated oral protozoa at Szeged in 1929-1930. E. gingivalis was found to occur in 42.5 96 and 52.4^, respectively, of the so-called „matéria alba" sampled from the mouth of 73 children and 426 adults. Among the adults, 144- ndividuals suffered also from dental or oral diseases; the a ..oeba occurred in 66 $> of these cases T. tenax occurred less often: in 19.4 # of 282 healthy individuals, and in 23.6 of the above cited 144 sick donors. According to PARKAS'

s investigations, the