Frequency of cryptosporidiosis among gastroenteritic patients

Abstract

Background and purpose: Cryptosporidiosis is one of the opportunistic protozoan diseases and zoonosis in the world, leading to acute or chronic gastroenteritis caused by Cryptosporidium spp. Since Mazandaran province is a suitable region for parasites transmission this study aims at determining the frequency of cryptosporidiosis among gastroenteritic patients referred to hospitals and medical centers of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2010-2011. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was done in hospitals and medical centers of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, in 2010-2011. Stool samples of 348 patients with gastroenteritic were collected using random cluster sampling. Specimens were prepared by formalin- Ether method and smears were stained by both acid-fast staining (AFS) and auramine phenol fluorescence (APF) to detect Cryptosporidium oocysts and then the data was analyzed using SPSS and Chi-square test. Results: Among the patients, most cases were above 40 years of age (36.8%) and only 7.5% included those aged 10-20. Also, 53.2% of patients were male while 46.8% were female. We found that 59.5% of patients live in towns and 40.5% live in villages. Cryptosporidium was detected in 8 cases (2.3%). A statistically significant correlation was observed between Cryptosporidium and the age of patients and also between Cryptosporidium and the month of being annoyed by diarrhea (P<0.05). Conclusion: Low prevalence of cryptosporidiosis was found in this study compared with previous studies in Mazandaran province. However, it is important to accurately diagnose Cryptosporidium and other parasitic infections in stool samples of patients with diarrhea admitted to hospitals or reference labs through appropriate methods of parasitology. آ© 2012, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.