The Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites in the Samples Collected from the Central Laboratory of Borujen, Iran

Abstract

Background: From the past and till now, infectious intestinal parasites have been widely distributed across the world. Parasitic diseases are a major health-economic concern in developing countries. The high prevalence of parasitic infections is mostly related to issues such as poor personal hygiene, unhealthy water supplies, and lack of health education. Due to geographic location and diverse climate conditions, Iran has a variety of human and animal parasites. Objectives: In this study, the prevalence of intestinal parasites was reported in the samples collected from the Central Laboratory of Borujen, Iran. Methods: The sampling method was a survey sampling from all individuals referred to the Central Laboratory of Borujen. All of the stool specimens were prepared through a direct method (phylogenetic serum) and examined by light microscopy. Results: Among positive cases, 42 (53.8%) were male and 36 (46.2%) were female, thus there was no significant correlation between the prevalence of infection and sex. The highest level of contamination was for Giardia lamblia to the extent of 75 cases (96.1%), two cases of Enterobius vermicularis (2.6%) and one case of Blastocystis hominis (1.3%). Out of the total number of positive cases, 76 cases (97.4%) infected with protozoa and 2 cases (2.6%) with helminths. Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that due to the good level of hygiene in addition to cold and dry weather of Borujen, the frequency of intestinal parasites in this city has been low. However, similar to other parts of the country, the most prevalence of contamination was related to young ages and Giardia.