Investigation of intestinal parasites in Patients referring to hospitals laboratories in Ardabil in 2018

Background: Parasitic diseases are one of the health problems of all societies and are considered as barriers to progress socio-economic development, especially in most developing countries. This study compares the results of evaluation of protozoal and helminthic parasitic infections with direct, concentration and culture methods in stool specimens of patients referring to laboratories of hospitals affiliated to Ardabil University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Methods: Total of 409 stool specimens were collected from laboratories in hospitals affiliated to the University of Medical Sciences and transferred to the parasitology lab of the Faculty of Medicine and Paramedics for a period of less than two hours. In the laboratory, samples were evaluated using direct, concentration and culture methods. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 software. Results: In this study, 409 stool specimens were collected from Imam Khomeini and Booali Hospitals. In total, 22 cases (5. 4%) were infected with intestinal parasites. 5.3% of men and 5.4% of women were infected. The rate of infection to the protozoa and helminths was 3.7% and 1.7% respectively. Infection rate of intestinal parasites including Entamoeba histolytica 0.5%, Entamoeba coli 0.7%, Giardia lamblia 1.2% , Blastocystis hominis 1.2%, Dicrocoelium dendriticum 0.97%, Trichostrongylus sp. 0.24%, Enterobius vermicularis 0.24% and free living larvae 0.24%. Conclusion: The present study showed that infection rate with intestinal protozoa, especially Giardia lamblia and Blastocystis hominis in Ardabil is high, which requires special control measures