Abdel-Wahab M¹*, Ahmed A Elwethenani², Abdullah SAl-Ghamdi³, Abdulaziz HS Alkhamash⁴, Majed H Alsofyani⁵, Khadiga H Khan⁵, Abdullah A Alqahtani⁵, Nourah M Alghashmari⁵, Marwan MB Al Thomali⁵, Mohammed AR Al-Shamrani⁵, Abdullah M Noor Alotaibi⁵, Yasser M Alkhamash⁶, Khaled RE Almalki⁵, Hussein B HAlmalki⁵, Sami, MS Althobaiti⁶, Ashwaq M Alhumaidi⁵, Mesfer AM Alshalawi⁷

¹Laboratory Consultant, King Faisal Medical Complex Hospital - Taif, KSA

*Corresponding Author: Abdel-Wahab M, Laboratory Consultant, King Faisal Medical Complex Hospital - Taif, KSA.

Received: December 20, 2022; Published: December 30, 2022

Abstract

This study has been done to estimate the reason of shift of incidence of intestinal and blood parasite infections. At the King Faisal Medical Complex (KFMC) Parasitology department in Taif, Saudi Arabi 500 stool samples received for examination during the Covid-19 pandemic (January-december 2020) and 1068 samples submitted during the same months of the following year (January-December 2021) were subjected to dataset analysis. Thorough, 12.8% (201/1568) of samples were parasites- positives; 12% (60/500) during the pandemic and 13.5% (141/1068) after, with increase of 81%. A significant difference in gender between the two periods (p < 0.001)as the majority of parasitism were in males. Patients aged 15-44 years Infections were frequent in both during (19/500; 3.8%) and after the pandemic (75/1068; 7%), with observed significant difference (p < 0.002). Moreover, non-Saudi (62.2%; 125/201)were more infected with a reported significant difference in nationality, (p = 0.024). Protozoa were identified in 8.1% (127) of all processed samples, of which, Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, Blastocystis hominis, Giardia lamblia, and Cryptosporidium species were identified in 6.3% (53), 6% (49) 5.3% (47), 3.3% (21), and 2.1% (12), respectively while Helminths were diagnosed in 1.9% (19) of samples. Hookworm eggs, Ascaris egg, Taenia spp egg, and Hymenolepis nana egg, Trichuris trichiura egg and Strongyloide stercoralis larvae were detected in 0.9% (4), 0.3% (3), 0.3% (3), 0.4% (4), 0.3% (3) and 0.2% (2) respectively. Overall, 12.6% of blood samples were malaria positive; 1.3% during the pandemic and 11.3% after it. Out of positive samples, Plasmodium ovale was identified in 14 (36.8%) Plasmodium falciparum 12 (31.6%) and Plasmodium vivax in 11(29%). With the quarantine measures applied during the Covid-19 pandemic according to our research hypothesis, a reportable decrease in parasitic load infection was noticed.

Keywords: Intestinal Parasites; Prevalence Covid -19 Pandemic; Malaria Parasites; Blood Film

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Citation

Citation: Abdel-Wahab M., et al. “Post-COVID-19 Pandemic: Parasite Diseases New Status". Acta Scientific Microbiology 6.1 (2023): 77-86.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Abdel-Wahab M., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.