Study the Frequency of Intestinal Parasites and its Association with Clinical Symptoms in Patients who Referred to Hamadan Health Centers in 1998-99

• Published in: Pizishkī-i bālīnī-i Ibn-i Sīnā Vol. 7; no. 4
• Main Author: Khosro Sardarian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Persian
• Published: Hamadan University of Medical Sciences 01.03.2001
• Subjects: intestinal parasitic diseases - diagnosis / intestinal parasitic diseases - epidemiology
• ISSN: 2588-722X; 2588-7238

Intestinal   protozoa  and   helminths  are  aetiological  agents of several    widespread   parasitic   diseases. The   most common ones are Entamoeba    histolytica , Giardia lamblia and Ascaris lumbricoides. The main purposes  of     this study were determination the frequency of intestinal parasites,and study    the  clinical  symptoms   of  patients  and  also  to  indicate  the  correlation    between symptoms and  parasitic infection  and the kind of parasites.          Two hundreds and twenty seven patients were examined  by physicians    and  directed to parasitology  laboratory  for  stool   examination  by  direct    method   and   formol - ether  (concentration method ). The   demographic    characteristic and the gasterointestinal symptoms of patients were provided    through questionaire.          Frequency  of   parasitic   helminths and protozoa were 20.2% and 22.9%     respectively. However 42.6%  of  the patients were infected by at least one     pathogenic parasites . The most infected cases had G.lamblia (19.3%),and    the most common  symptom  was  abdomen  pain  and  the  least one was    vomiting. In  the  Ascaris  infected  cases, the  most common symptom was    vomiting (57.1%) and  in  the  Giardia  infected   cases, the   most  common    symptom was abdomen pain (64.7%). Ascaris  and Giardia had the highest    prevalence among the  studied  patients.          The   prevalence   of  pathogenic intestinal parasites in study group who    had   gastrointestinal symptoms was high (42.6%). The main symptoms were    the   same   as  those   usually   observed  in patients infected with intestinal    parasites. Some   of   non-pathogenic   diseases   may   also   cause   similar    symptoms.