Current situation of Cryptosporidium and other enteroparasites among patients with gastroenteritis from western cities of Mazandaran province, Iran, during 2007-2008

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence rate of Cryptosporidium and other enteropathogen parasites among patients with gastroenteritis in western cities of Mazandaran province, northern Iran, during one year. Background: As specific characterization, high humidity, ecological conditions, superficial water sources, municipal water supplies, domestic and industrial animal husbandry and the rate of raining made Mazandaran as a favorable province for transmission of parasitic diseases. Patients and methods: This investigation was conducted between June 2007 to June 2008 in western cities of Mazandaran province, Northern Iran. Overall, 420 stool samples of gastroenteritis patients were collected from Chalous (194 sample), Tonekabon (187 sample) and Ramsar (39 sample), fixed and examined by Direct Method (DM) for diagnosis of enteropathogen parasites, Acid-Fast Staining (AFS) and Auramin Phenol Fluorescence (APF) for detection ofCryptosporidium and other sporozoan protozoa. Results: The results confirmed the overall prevalence rate of parasitic infections to be 2.14% (9 patients) among those cities, and the highest rate of infection was observed to be among Giardia lamblia (1.19%, 5 patients), Blastocystis hominis (0.71%, 3 patients) and Entamoeba coli (0.24%, 1 patient) respectively. There was no Cryptospordium and other sporozoan infection among the test samples. Comparative prevalence rates of parasitic infections in Chalous, Tonekabon and Ramsar were 1.55% (3 patients), 2.14% (4 patients) and 2.56% (1 patient) respectively. The relative frequencies of parasitic infections amonginfected individuals were associated with seasons, therefore the highest and the lowest rates were observed in autumn (40%) and spring (10%), respectively. Conclusion: Although, the current results showed a decline in the rate of parasitic infections in Mazandaran province recently in comparison with the past previous studies, the situation is always under caution for emerging and re-emergingenteropathogen parasites with the emphasize on opportunistic parasites.