Children in rural West Java infected with the whipworm Trichuris trichiura carry gut bacterial communities that differ measurably from those of uninfected classmates, according to a cross-sectional microbiome study published in Acta Parasitologica. The research, led by a team of Indonesian investigators, compared 15 school-aged children with T. trichiura monoinfection against nine children in whom no intestinal helminth infection could be detected.
The study’s central finding concerns diversity, a measure of how many bacterial types are present and how evenly they are distributed. At the family level, Shannon diversity was significantly lower in the infected group, averaging 1.720 with a standard deviation of 0.201, compared with 1.962 plus or minus 0.280 in the uninfected children, a difference that reached statistical significance at p = 0.041. A second diversity metric, the Simpson index, did not differ significantly between the groups, with a p-value of 0.073. The two indices gave different results: Shannon diversity differed significantly between the groups while Simpson diversity did not (p = 0.073).
Beyond diversity, the researchers asked whether the overall composition of the bacterial community shifted with infection status. A PERMANOVA test, which partitions variation in community composition across sample groupings, identified an association between infection status and bacterial community structure, with an R-squared value of 0.126 and a p-value of 0.0077. PERMANOVA identified an association between infection status and bacterial community composition, with an R2 of 0.126 and a p-value of 0.0077.
Taxonomically, the two groups shared a broadly similar dominant profile. Bacillota, a major bacterial phylum formerly known as Firmicutes, predominated in both infected and uninfected children, accounting for 86.20 percent and 79.82 percent of relative bacterial abundance respectively. Within that phylum, bacteria of the family Lachnospiraceae were the most abundant group, making up 57.20 percent of the community in infected children and 44.59 percent in uninfected children. Bacillota predominated in both groups, and Lachnospiraceae accounted for 57.20 percent of relative abundance in infected children and 44.59 percent in uninfected children.
When the researchers examined individual bacterial taxa for differential abundance between infected and uninfected children, no single taxon remained statistically significant after correction for the false discovery rate. No individual bacterial taxa remained statistically significant after false discovery rate correction. The authors state that no robust taxon-specific associations were identified. The authors state plainly that no robust taxon-specific associations were identified.
The context for the work is the persistent burden of soil-transmitted helminth infections in endemic regions. Soil-transmitted helminth infections remain a public health concern in endemic regions, and evidence regarding gut microbiota variation in relation to T. trichiura infection has been inconsistent, particularly among children in endemic settings.
The authors describe their findings as exploratory and call for larger longitudinal studies to confirm them. The authors state that larger longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these exploratory findings.
Subject of Research: Gut microbiota differences associated with Trichuris trichiura infection in school-aged children in rural Indonesia
Article Title: Gut Microbiota Variation in Relation to Trichuris trichiura Infection Among School-Aged Children in a Helminth-Endemic Area of Indonesia
Article References: Astuti, E. P., Murni, I. K., Dhewantara, P. W., Kusuma, R. J., Saputra, S., Nugroho, H. A., Yanthi, N. D., Hendri, J., Yuliasih, Y., Marina, R., Isnani, T., & Rahayu, N. (2026). Gut Microbiota Variation in Relation to Trichuris trichiura Infection Among School-Aged Children in a Helminth-Endemic Area of Indonesia. Acta Parasitologica, 71(6), Article 254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-026-01438-3
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s11686-026-01438-3
Keywords: Trichuris trichiura, gut microbiota, soil-transmitted helminths, 16S rRNA sequencing, West Java, school-aged children, alpha diversity, PERMANOVA, Lachnospiraceae, Bacillota, cross-sectional study, Kato-Katz
News Source: Kristina Jarvis. (November 5, 2026). Whipworm Infection Reshapes Gut Bacterial Diversity in Indonesian Children, Study Finds. Scienmag.
