Abstract:
The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients with chronic diarrhea. This prevalence was compared with two control groups: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) seronegative diarrheal patients and HIV seropositive individuals without diarrhoea. Stool specimens from clinically diagnosed hospitalized AIDS patients in some hospitals in Addis Ababa were screened for parasite infection. Of 147 AIDS patients with chronic diarrhoea, 74 (50.3%) were infected with one kind or more of parasites. Out of 56 non-AIDS (seronegative) diarrhoeal patients, 41.1% (23/56) and out of the 43 non-diarrhoeal (seropositive) patients, 41.9% (18/43) were infected by a variety of intestinal protozoa and helminths. The parasites detected in AIDS patients were Cryptosporidium spp, Isospora spp, Blastocystis spp, Ascaris lumbricoides, Giardia lamblia, Strongyloides stercoralis, Taenia spp, Trichuris trichiura, Entamoeba histolytica, and Hook worm spp. Among the intestinal parasites, Cryptosporidium spp was exclusively associated with AIDS patients. The high proportion of the study subjects who had diarrhoea in the absence of identifiable parasitic infections suggests that other infectious agents (eg. Bacteria and Virus) or mechanisms other than infectious agents, are responsible for the diarrhoea.