Ashok K Tanwani, Shamim A Qazi, Koji Hashimoto, Mushtaq A Khan.
Intestinal parasites in stool samples from children at the Children`s Hospital Laboratory, Islamabad.
Pak Paed J Jan ;19(2):61-4.

Intestinal infection due to protozoan and helminthic parasites is a universal phenomenon. Their identification in a stool specimen from a patient is useful for treatment. The objective of this study was to find out the frequency of intestinal parasites ova/cysts in tested stool samples of children. Microscopic examination of 7146 stool samples from children up to 12 years of age was carried out from May 1990 to April 1991 at the microbiology department of the Children`s Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. The samples were received from outpatient department, Diarrhoea Training Unit (DTU) and inpatient department. All stool samples were analyzed by direct wet mount technique and out of these 1362 samples were also examined by zinc sulphate floatation concentration technique. Sixteen hundreds and fifty one (23%) of die subjects studied had intestinal parasitic infection by direct wet mount technique. Out of these common parasites were Giardia lamblia (67%), Ascaris lumbricoides (12.8), Hymenolepis nana (10.4%), Trichuris trichuria (3.5%), Enterobius vermicularis (1.8%). Entamoeba histolytica (1.4%) and Taenia saginata (0.4%). The floatation concentration technique revealed 356 (26%) stool samples positive for ova/cysts of parasites out of 1362 samples examined. Only a simple routine stool examination is required to identify intestinal parasitic infection.

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