Abstract

BackgroundParasitic infections are still a significant health problem in rural areas in developing countries including Iran. There is no recent population-based data about the prevalence of human intestinal parasites in most rural areas of Iran. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal protozoan infection in inhabitants of rural areas of Boyer-Ahmad district, Southwestern Iran.MethodsA total of 1025 stool samples were collected from the inhabitant of 50 randomly selected villages in Boyer-Ahmad Township. The stool samples were evaluated by parasitological methods including, direct wet-mounting, formalin ethyl acetate concentration, zinc sulfate floatation, and Trichrome permanent stain for detection of protozoan infections. Diarrheic samples were further evaluated with a modified Ziehl–Neelsen staining method for detection of coccidian parasites.ResultsThe prevalence of both pathogenic and nonpathogenic intestinal parasites in the population was 37.5% (385 out of 1025 cases), some individual with multiple infections. Giardia lamblia was detected in 179 (17.46%), Blastocystis hominis in 182 (17.76%), Entamoeba histolytica/dispar in 9 (0.87%), Endolimax nana in 216 (21.07%), Entamoeba coli in 151 (14.73%), Ioedamoeba butschlii in 45 (4.39%), Chillomastix mesnili in 22 (2.14%), Trichomonas hominis in 2 (0.19%) and Dientamoeba fragillis in 2 (0.19%) of cases. Multivariate logistic regression revealed significant associations between protozoan infection (pathogenic protozoa) and contact with animals (OR yes/no = 2.22, p < 0.001) and educational status (OR higher/illiterate = 0.40, P = 0.01).ConclusionFindings of this study demonstrated that protozoan infection rate in rural areas of southwestern Iran is still high and remained as a challenging health problem in these areas.

Highlights

  • Parasitic infections are still a significant health problem in rural areas in developing countries including Iran

  • Intestinal protozoan infections remain as a major health problem in tropical and subtropical areas of the

  • In Iran, results of previous studies indicated that Giardia and Blastocystis are the most common intestinal protozoan infection among the population [2, 8,9,10, 16, 17]

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Summary

Introduction

Parasitic infections are still a significant health problem in rural areas in developing countries including Iran. There is no recent population-based data about the prevalence of human intestinal parasites in most rural areas of Iran. Intestinal protozoan infections remain as a major health problem in tropical and subtropical areas of the Sarkari et al BMC Infectious Diseases (2016) 16:703 surveys of intestinal parasites in different geographical areas of a given country. While pathogenic parasites may cause overt disease in infected individuals, nonpathogenic parasites are still important since their existence point to a fecal-oral transmission in infected people. Contamination with these nonpathogenic parasites are an index for sanitary and health conditions of individuals in a given area

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