Becoming infected with a species of worm will increase feminine fertility, a study has found.
Writing within the journal Science, researchers say native girls in Bolivia have had an additional 2 kids as a results of turning into infected.
The roundworm, common roundworm, alters their system to create it easier for them to become pregnant, the BBC reports.
Experts say the findings may lead to new fertility-enhancing medicine being developed.
The study, of 986 Tsimane girls in Bolivia, found most couples there have 9 youngsters.
And around seventy per cent of the population area unit believed to be infected with the parasitic roundworm.
Up to quarter of the world's population has such associate degree infection, per the globe Health Organisation (WHO.
While Ascaris lumbricoides raised fertility, associate degree infection with hookworm had the other result, resulting in girls having 3 fewer youngsters.
Professor Michael Gurven, of University of Golden State Santa Barbara said: 'The Tsimane examine United States as poor as a result of we have a tendency to solely have one or 2 youngsters.
'Their growth rate is sort of four %, therefore each seventeen years roughly, they double their numbers.'
Prof Aaron Blackwell, one in all the researchers, conjointly from the University of American state town, same the worms in all probability amendment a woman's system therefore her body does not reject the fetus.
He said: 'We suppose the results we tend to see area unit in all probability attributable to these infections sterilization women's immune systems, such they become a lot of or less friendly towards a physiological condition.'
Using worms as a fertility treatment was associate 'intriguing possibility', he said, however warned a lot of studies required to be dole out before he might advocate making an attempt this.
Contamination from parasitic worms area unit the foremost common infections worldwide and have an effect on the poorest and most disadvantaged communities, in keeping with the World Health Organization.
They are transmitted by eggs in human excretion, that successively contaminate soil in areas wherever sanitation is poor.
The main species that infect folks square measure the roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), the whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and therefore the hookworms (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale).
Intestinal worms turn out a large vary of symptoms together with symptom, abdominal pain, general uneasiness and weakness.
Hookworms cause internal blood loss that end in anaemia (iron deficiency).
Latest estimates indicate that over 880 million youngsters square measure in would like of treatment for these parasites, the United Nations agency aforementioned.
