EJMS

Abstract

Diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis is generally based on microscopic detection of oocysts in stool, but this offers no information about the infecting species, the development of genetic tools has made possible detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts by PCR which can differentiate between C. parvum and C. hominis. In our study diarrheic stool samples of 430 children were examined by microscopic stool examination for detection of Cryptosporidium oocyst or other parasites using direct wet smear, sheather's sugar cover slip floation method, formol-ether concentration technique, and modified zeihl nelseen stain then genotyping of 50 Cryptosporidium positive samples was done by nested PCR technique. The genotyping distribution showed that there were 41 cases (82%) C. parvum, 6 cases (12%) C. hominis and 3 cases (6%) mixed infection, the predominance of C. parvum infection in this study could be explained by increase the risk of zoonotic transmission. Furthermore, the presence of up to (12%) of samples infected with C. hominis shows that further investigations are required to determine the subgenotypes of C. hominis to clarify the mode of transmission in order to improve the control measures. It was found that C. parvum was more common among males (61%) than females (39%) while C.hominis was more common among female (83.3%) than males (16.7%). It was found that higher rate of C. parvum infection was in cases from rural areas (63.4%) than those from urban areas (36.6%),while in C. hominis higher rate of infection was in cases from urban areas (66.7%) than those from rural areas (33.3%).Among C. parvum genotype there were 70.7% of cases presented with abdominal pain, 58.5% with vomiting and 39% presented with fever, among C. hominis genotype there were 50% of cases presented with abdominal pain, 16.7% with vomiting and 66.7% presented with fever. Among C.parvum genotype there were 30 case (73.2%) immune compromised and 11 case (26.8%) immune competent while among C.hominis genotype there were 3 cases (50%) immune compromised and 3 cases (50%) immune competent. Among C.parvum genotype there were a peak in July, August and Septemeber as there were 21 case (51.2%), while among C.hominis genotype there were a peak in July, August and September as there were 4cases (66.7%).