Prevalence of Cryptosporidium in children with enteritis in Southern Italy

Abstract

Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan which causes self-limiting diarrhea in immunocompetent subjects, and severe life-threatening disease in immunocompromised patients. Cryptosporidiosis is more common in developing countries and in infants. In this paper we have evaluated the prevalence of C. parvum in 368 hospitalized children with enteritis, of whom 359 were immunocompetent and 9 HIV-infected. Stool specimens were concentrated by sedimentation and stained with a modified Ziehl-Neelsen method. Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts were found in 7 (1.90%) out of 368 subjects. Six of these were immunocompetent (with an infection rate in this population of 1.67%) and 1 HIV-infected, asymptomatic except for diarrhea. In all children symptoms of enteritis and oocyst excretion cleared within 10 days. These results indicate that the prevalence of C. parvum as a causative agent of diarrheal illness in hospitalized immunocompetent children is rather low in our region (Apulia, South Italy).

An Italian Study on Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Wastewater, Fresh Water and Treated Water

“…In Italy a very few epidemiological studies on the protozoal infections incidence were conducted. Brandonisio et al (1993) reported cases of cryptosporidiosis in HIV-infected subjects with high values of prevalence (33.3%) and a rather low prevalence of Cryptosporidium parvum as a causative agent of diarrheal illness in hospitalised immunocompetent children in the Apulia region (Brandonisio et al, 1996). Nevertheless a Cryptosporidium high seroprevalence rate (25 -35%) is generally observed in industrialized countries (Garcia-Rodriguez et al, 1989;Kortbeek et al, 1994;Casemore et al, 1997) and this trend seems to be confirmed also in Italy (Frost et al, 2000).…”

“…In Italy, nevertheless cases of infections are pointed out, especially among children (Brandonisio et al, 1996), it is difficult to correlate them with the consumption and use of contaminated waters. Now, the new European Directive on quality of water intended for human consumption (Directive 98/83/CE) states Cryptosporidium to be determined in drinking water when Clostridium perfringens is detected.…”

Giardia and Cryptosporidium and public health: the epidemiological scenario from the Italian perspective

“…The prevalence of cryptosporidiosis in immunocompetent patients, independent of age, was usually lower than giardiosis and ranged from 1.27% (Moretti et al 1988) to 1.7% (Brandonisio et al 1996). A low percentage of cryptosporidiosis (0.84%) was also found in subjects living in a mental institution (Giacometti et al 1997).…”

A family outbreak of cryptosporidiosis: probable nosocomial infection and person-to-person transmission

“…In western and northern European countries, the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in the stools of the healthy adult population ranges from 0.4% to 1.46% and in children with diarrhea from 1.9% to 2.5% [5][6][7]. Oocysts of cryptosporidia were detected in 1.4% of stool samples taken from children suffering from diarrheal disease during the cold season in western Austria.…”