Serological Survey of Hydatid Disease in Asymptomatic Peoples in Mosul City, Iraq

Abstract

Hydatidosis is one of the major zoonotic diseases that causes considerable economic losses and public health problems worldwide. This study was conducted in order to determine the seropositivity of hydatid disease in apparently healthy individuals who are attending the main blood bank in Mosul City. Therefore, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used in this study and to find a relation between the seropositivity and age, gender, occupation and educational level and to monitor the impact of the control programs for the disease in Mousl City. The study was conducted during 9 months period extended from November 2012 to July 2013.The samples of the study were composed of 480 apparently healthy individuals with ages ranging between 18-60 years, 280 male and 200 female. Serum samples were obtained from the main blood bank in Mosul city, ELISA test was used for detecting specific anti Echinococcus granulosus antibodies in patients’ sera. ELISA kits used were (Echinococcus ELISA IgG- IBL, Hamburg, Germany –RE 56201) kits. The results revealed that out of 480 cases only 24 (5%) were positive by ELISA, the most frequently infected individuals were females (8%) while males were less frequently encounter the disease (2.86 %). the rate of hydatid cysts was highest at age group 21-30 years (7.02%) followed by age group 31-40 years (6.5%), 41-50 years ( 3.7% ) respectively, the highest infection rate was reported among housewives (10.83%), followed by self employed (4.46%), then the government employed (3.23%). On the other hand ,the lowest rate of infection was recorded among students (1.28%) and (2.88%) in other occupations, it was reported that (56.5%) were illiterate, (4.35%) were primary school, (2.42%) were secondary school and (1.38%) were of high education, most of the seropositive individuals were from rural or semi-rural areas surrounding Mosul City. It was recorded that (6.02%) and ( 3.89% ) were from rural and urban area respectively. The rate of seropositivity in the individuals who have contact with dogs (5.81%) was higher than that in individuals who do not have contact with dogs (4.05%).