Prevalence of Cyclospora cayetanensis among symptomatic and asymptomatic immune-competent children less than five years of age in Alexandria, Egypt

BackgroundThe objective of the present work is to determine the prevalence of Cyclospora cayetanensis in symptomatic and asymptomatic immune-competent children less than five years in Alexandria, Egypt.Subjects and methodsThis study was conducted on two groups: Group I: 100 children suffering from acute diarrhea for less than 14 days. Group II: 100 apparently healthy children without diarrhea. All patients were subjected to history taking, physical examination and stool examination by: direct smear examination, concentration using formol ether sedimentation and Sheather's sugar floatation technique and staining using modified Ziehl–Neelsen and modified trichrome stains.ResultsThere was a significant difference between Cyclospora infected children in symptomatic (17%) and asymptomatic (6%) groups. Cryptosporidium was detected in 10 diarrheic children (10%), five cases were combined with Cyclospora infection and not detected in any of the asymptomatic group. Microsporidia, Giardia lamblia and Hymenolepis nana were also detected in the symptomatic group. There was no significant difference as regards age and residency of Cyclospora positive and negative cases in both groups. In asymptomatic group, Cyclospora infected cases were males while in negative cases, 50% were males. This was statistically significant. There was no significant difference between the type of feeding and the Cyclospora infected cases in the two groups. As regards weight for height standard deviation (SD), there was no significant difference between the number of cases below normal in infected and noninfected diarrheic children. All asymptomatic cases were within the normal range without a significant difference. There was no significant difference between symptomatic Cyclospora infected and noninfected cases as regards the duration of diarrhea and clinical presentations.ConclusionCyclospora infection in immune-competent symptomatic and asymptomatic children in Alexandria is common. Physicians should request a routine fecal examination for this parasite in any case with diarrhea or gastrointestinal troubles.