Food-Borne Protozoan Infection in HIV+/AIDS Patients and Healthy Individuals: A Case-Control Study in Iran

Background: Intestinal protozoa transmitted by food are the most common opportunistic parasites among the HIV+/AIDS patients. As, there is no report about prevalence of food-borne intestinal parasites in such patients in Yazd, so this study was performed to determine the prevalence of intestinal protozoa in the HIV+/AIDS patients in comparison with HIV- individuals. Methods: A case-control study was conducted from July 2015 to March 2016. Totally, 73 patients (group I) were involved from the Prevention of Behavioral Disorders Center, Yazd, central of Iran. A control group (group II) comprised 147 HIV- individuals. After collecting the stool samples; wet mount, concentration method, and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining was performed. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 16.0 by Chi-Square and Fisher tests. Results: Detected food-borne protozoa in HIV+/AIDS patients were included Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica, Blastocystis hominis, Chilomastix mesnili, Endolimax nana, and Entamoeba coli. Overall, out of 73 cases in group I, 34.2% were infected with intestinal food-borne protozoa compared with 4.1% (out of 147 cases) infection rate in group II, which showed significant difference (p < 0.05). There were no significant differ-ences between sex and incidence rate of parasitic protozoan infection between groups I and II. However, a meaningful relationship was found between age and incidence rate of parasitic infection (p < 0.05). Conclusion: It is emphasized the necessity of increasing awareness among clinicians regarding the occurrence of the food-borne parasites in this population. Considering their susceptibility, HIV+/AIDS individuals should be educated regarding high importance of food and water safety and disinfecting protocols of suspected and hazardous foods (espe-cially unwashed vegetables and fruits) to prevent intestinal parasitic diseases.