ABSTRACT
An investigation has been carried out from September 1995 to December 1997 to search for microsporidian spores in the stool specimens of 344 toddlers aged 1 to 24 months, hospitalized at a pediatric institution in Tucumßn. They were classified in two groups: I, made up of 222 children suffering from severe diarrheas, and II by 122 affected by different pathologies, except gastroenteritis. The detection of microsporidia was done by light microscopy in smears of stained stool specimens by using the Weber modified Kokoskin method. Copro-parasitological and coprobacteriological studies were also carried out and the nutritional status of each child was determined. In group I, microsporidia were found in 12/122 cases (7.2), 4/68 belong to eutrophic children (5.9), and 12/137 to undernourished children (8.8); 8/16 positives were found to be related with other enteropatogenics. In group II, microsporidia were detected in 10/122 (8.2), 4/47 in eutrophic children (8.5), 4/54 in undernourished children (7.4) and without data in two cases. They were related with other enteropatogenics in 5/10 positives. Tucumßn can be estimated as an area with a low rate of HIV infection in toddlers, then it can be estimated that the studied sample was essentially HIV negative. The occurrence of microsporidia was important and did not show significant differences between toddlers with or without diarrhea, eutrophic or undernourished children.