Muhammad Yahya Noori, Ghazala Khan, Ishrat Abid, Samina Baig, Sambreen Zamir, Shaheen Sharafat.
Demographics of Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Karachi: An Insight from Positive Stool Samples.
J Islamic Int Med Coll Jan ;11(1):20-3.

Objective: The objective of this study was to study the demographics of intestinal parasitic infections and find out the relative frequency of different intestinal parasites in clinical samples received for routine stool examination from symptomatic patients with diarrhea and/or dysentery. Study Design: A Retrospective cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Dow Diagnostics Research and Reference Laboratory, Karachi, Pakistan from January 2008 to December 2013 of stool analysis from the patients with symptoms of diarrhea and/or dysentery. Materials and Methods: Microscopic stool examination was performed using direct samples by wet mount under low as well as high power bright field magnification. Tabulations were performed using Microsoft Excel while Chi-square test was applied using Open-epi software. Results: Among the 1815 positive cases infected with single parasites, Entamoebahistolytica was the most commonly found parasite, followed by Giardia labmlia, Blastocystishominis, Ascarislumbricoides and Hymenolepis nana. Among these patients, 1081 (59.6%) were males and 734 (40.4%) were females. Chi-square test was applied using open-episoftware, which showed significant differences among males and females (p=0.03). Conclusion: Protozoal intestinal parasites Entamoebahistolytica and Giardia lambliaare the commonest among all age groups followed by the helminths Ascaris lmbricoides and Hymenolepis nana. Other notable parasites include Entamoeba coli and Taenia species.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com