Determination of the prevalence of opportunistic intestinal parasites in children with diarrhea

The aim of this study is to determine the most frequent opportunistic intestinal parasites in children and demonstrate its importance. Study was conducted on patients between the ages 0 and 16. The study consisted of a total of 150 children, 66 girls and 84 boys. 44 of the girls and 56 of the boys (100 in total) had diarrhea. Evaluation was done by native-Lugol, flotation in saturated zinc sulfate, and modified acid-fast staining. Intestinal parasites were detected in 38% of 150 examined stool samples. Among them 41% of those with diarrhea and 32% of those without diarrhea were positive. The highest observed parasite species was detected as Blastocystis hominis (14.7%); and the lowest were Ascaris lumbricoides and Hymenolepis nana (0.7%). It was concluded that all children with gastro-intestinal complaints should be evaluated for intestinal parasites, mainly opportunistic ones, without preliminary screening whether the patient is diarrhea or not.

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