A survey of the prevalence of intestinal protozoa in Sebha city, Libya

Abstract

The study was conducted on the prevalence of intestinal protozoan parasites in Sebha city, Libya. Collection of 1,526 stool samples were undertaken from January to December 2014. All samples were examined in the Sebha Central Laboratory. The objective of the study was to measure the prevalence infection of intestinal protozoan in Sebha city. The Chi-square test was used to measure the statistical significant differences at level p<0.05. The  results of the study showed  that, 14.8% of the examined samples were infected with different species of protozoan parasites. Blastocystis hominis was the most common parasite detected in this study, with 9.8% of infection rate, followed by Entamoeba histolytica/Entamoeba dispar (3.1%), and then Giardia lamblia (1.5%),  Entamoeba coli (0.3%), Trichomonas hominis (0.13%), and finally Entamoeba hartmani (0.07%). The prevalence of infection in females (15.8%) was insignificantly (p=0.357) higher than in males (13.9%). The highest prevalence (19.5%) was found in the group aged between 10 to 19 years, with a significant relationship between the intestinal protozoan infection and ages (p=0.004). The results revealed that the highest rate of infection was in February (21.9%), followed by 21.1% in January, with no significant differences in the prevalence of infection between the different months (p=0.706).