ABSTRACT
Over a consecutive 36 month period, 100 patients out of 6,980 (1.4%) from whom stool samples were examined had oocysts of Cryptosporidium detected on fecal microscopy. Three patients were receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy and adequate clinical information was available from 84 of the remainder. Fifty per cent of patients were aged 1 to 2 years, 29% were less than 12 months and the rest were more than 2 years of age. More than one-quarter of the patients were Australian Aborigines. Isolations of cryptosporidia were most prevalent in late summer, autumn and early winter. Most patients (89%) had diarrhea, more than 75% had vomiting and 44% were dehydrated, mostly to a mild degree. Other symptoms included fever (11%) and abdominal pain (11%). Ten percent of patients were apparently symptomless. Cryptosporidium sp. is the second most commonly identified intestinal parasite, after Giardia intestinalis, in fecal specimens examined in our children's hospital. The high rate of isolation in Aboriginal children emphasized the importance of enteric pathogens in this group and the role of inadequate hygiene in relation to diarrheal disease in young Aborigines.