Incidence of Human Protozoan Parasitic Infections in Chattogram City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Human protozoan infections constitute the largest segment of public health concern across the Indian sub-continent including Bangladesh. An MS research project investigated 6155 pathological reports of human blood/stool/urine screening tests at seven diagnostic centers and /or the Chittagong Medical College Microbiological Laboratory (CMCML). All microscopy confirmed infections were recorded every other day of the week at the selected diagnostic centers along with cross examination of selected samples, especially the thick and thin blood films for malaria-positive slides in CMCML. The accuracy and authenticity of the findings and diagnoses were verified through on-site visits during the days of data collection. The primary data spanned January, 2006 through June, 2006, and revealed a total of 307 positive cases of malaria, leishmaniasis, giardiasis, entamoebiasis, and trichomoniasis in blood, blood serum, stool, and urine samples of the patients suspected of the diseases. The total incidence, TPR accounted 4.99%. Entamoeba histolytica was prevalent in February. Giardia intestinalis was prevalent in 11–20 year old people while Trichomonas vaginalis was prevalent among females in May. Other infections were not linked demographically or temporally. Estimating infection incidence and the use of the chi-squared test for understanding their associations with various host and parasitic factors helped revealed the underlying severity of the infection burden and associated risk factors as well.