Occurrence of Cryptosporidium in human stool samples in Qatar

Abstract

Background Cryptosporidium is a common pathogenic parasite known to cause diarrhea in humans, particularly young children living in poor-resource settings, as well as animals. Symptoms are usually mild in immunocompetent individuals and may progress to a life-threatening disease among immunocompromised patients. The diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis can be challenging due to insensitive conventional diagnostic tests. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of cryptosporidiosis infection in Qatar and to compare four different diagnostic methods for detection of Cryptosporidium in human stool samples.Methods Stool samples obtained from patients with various gastrointestinal symptoms were received at the microbiology laboratory of Hamad general hospital, Qatar, for ova and parasites examination over a period of two years (January 2018 to December 2019). Stool samples were tested using four diagnostic methods: routine microscopy, immunochromatography (ICT), multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and modified Kinyoun's acid fast stain (MKS).Results Out of 205 stool samples, we detected Cryptosporidium in 17.6%, 15.0%, 7.0%, and 6.0% of specimens using PCR, ICT, MKS, and routine microscopy, respectively. Among the 36 positive patients, 39.0⁒ patients were under five years old, 17.0⁒ were aged between five and 10 years, 19.0⁒ were between 10 and 20 years, 17.0⁒ were between 20 and 40, and 8.0⁒ were over 40 years old. OF the positive cases, 61.1⁒ patients were male and 38.9⁒ were female. Additionally, 61.1⁒ of patients were Qatari nationals, while 38.9⁒ were from other origins.Conclusions For a better diagnosis of Cryptosporidium infection, PCR or ICT techniques should be incorporated alongside conventional microscopy methods. Future research using multi-locus sequence typing will to provide valuable insight to the molecular epidemiology and species diversity of Cryptosporidium species in Qatar.