Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis, Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Other Intestinal Parasites in Young Children in Lobata Province, Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe

Abstract

Rare systemic studies concerning prevalence of intestinal parasites in children have been conducted in the second smallest country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. Fecal specimens from 348 children (214 in-hospital attending the Aires de Menezes Hospital and 134 from Agostinho Neto village) in São Tome Island were studied by parasitological and molecular methods. Of the 134 children from Agostinho Neto, 52.2% presented intestinal parasites. 32.1% and 20.2% of these children had monoparasitism and polyparasitism, respectively. Ascaris lumbricoides (27.6%), G. duodenalis (7.5%), T. trichiura (4.5%) and Entamoeba coli (10.5%) were the more frequent species identified in the children of this village. Giardia duodenalis (7.5%) and E. bieneusi (5.2%) were identified by PCR. Nested-PCR targeting G. duodenalis TPI identified Assemblage A (60%) and Assemblage B (40%). The E. bieneusi ITS-based sequence identified genotypes K (57.1%), KIN1 (28.6%) and KIN3 (14.3%). Among the 214 in-hospital children, 29.4% presented intestinal parasites. In 22.4% and 7.0% of the parasitized children, respectively, one or more species were concurrently detected. By microscopy, A. lumbricoides (10.3%) and Trichiuris trichiura (6.5%) were the most prevalent species among these children, and Cryptosporidium was detected by PCR in 8.9% of children. GP60 locus analysis identified 6.5% of C. hominis (subtypes IaA27R3 [35.7%], IaA23R3 [14.3%], IeA11G3T3 [28.6%] and IeA11G3T3R1 [21.4%]) and 2.3% of C. parvum (subtypes IIaA16G2R1 [20.0%], IIaA15G2R1 [20.0%], IIdA26G1 [40.0%] and IIdA21G1a [20.0%]). G. duodenalis and E. bieneusi were identified in 0.5% and 8.9% of the in-hospital children, respectively. G. duodenalis Assemblage B was characterized. The E. bieneusi genotypes K (52.6%), D (26.4%), A (10.5%) and KIN1 (10.5%) were identified. Although further studies are required to clarify the epidemiology of these infectious diseases in this endemic region the significance of the present results highlights that it is crucial to strength surveillance on intestinal pathogens.

Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among school children in capital areas of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa

“…nana, and C. mesnili which are all transmitted by the fecal-oral route. More importantly, polyparasitism or co-infection with either multiple intestinal helminths and/or protozoa in DRSTP school children is very common, and this phenomenon has already been reported in previous studies conducted in DRSTP school children in 1998, 2005, or 2009 and elsewhere in the other developing world 13,17,20,22 , indicating that most school children lack home sanitation (piped water and latrines) and thus had greater opportunities to contact contaminated soil and infected water when taking care of body hygiene and domestic activities 17,22 .…”

“…Both studies revealed that the deworming effect of using an annual single dose of mebendazole in DRSTP schoolchildren did not seem ideal due to the remained high prevalence of IPIs as found in different areas in 2009 22 and 2010 (present study), respectively. As compared to other developing countries, present figure (64.7%) was lower than that reported in Angola (80%, 633/791)…”

Cryptosporidium-associated diarrhoea in neonatal calves in Algeria

“…Interestingly all C. parvum isolates were assigned to IIaA16G2R1, a sub-genotype less frequently documented causing bovine infections but already described in cattle in Algeria (Baroudi et al, 2017), Belgium (Geurden et al, 2007), and Spain (Quilez et al, 2008), and in yaks in China (Mi et al, 2013). Human infections by IIaA16G2R1 have also been reported in clinical and paediatric populations in Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe (Lobo et al, 2014) and Iran (Sharbatkhori et al, 2015;Ranjbar et al, 2016), highlighting the zoonotic potential of this C. parvum sub-genotype. It is also worth mentioning that other members of the sub-type family IIa found infecting Algerian cattle include IIaA13G2R1 (Benhouda et al, 2017) and IIaA17G3R1 (Baroudi et al, 2017), whereas IIaA15G2R1 has not been identified in isolates of human or animal origin in the country to date.…”

Molecular diversity of ScottishCryptosporidium hominisisolates

“…It is not known if the Scottish case had any recent foreign travel history to regions where this particular subtype has been isolated from environmental and human sources to explain this unusual finding. These include China, the Gulf of Guinea, Mexico, India, Australia and Kuwait [8,16,[20][21][22][23]]. An interesting report from England demonstrated an association of nonIbA10G2 subtypes with foreign travel [15] but as enhanced surveillance of cryptosporidiosis in Scotland is not performed, it is not possible to state with certainty if international travel was a factor in every non-IbA10G2 case.…”