Abstract
Although Cryptosporidium parvum is known to cause significant morbidity in immunocompromised individuals, including adults with cancer, the epidemiology of this pathogen in paediatric oncology patients is not known. We prospectively investigated the incidence of symptomatic C. parvum infection in children receiving treatment for malignancy. Over a 9 month period, all oncology inpatients with diarrhoea had stool analysis for C. parvum oocysts. The incidence of cryptosporidiosis was also recorded in non-oncology patients who had a stool analysed for C. parvum during the 6 years of the study period. None of the 149 stool samples from 60 oncology patients analysed contained C. parvum oocysts. Thirteen per cent of 173 samples from non-oncology patients were positive for C. parvum oocysts. In contrast to studies of adult oncology patients, paediatric oncology patients in our institution appear at low risk of cryptosporidiosis.
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