Increase in the Detection Rate of Viral and Parasitic Enteric Pathogens among Egyptian Children with Acute Diarrhea

Introduction: Acute diarrhea continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children from developing countries. Determination of the frequency of diarrhea in an area; along with the proportion of disease caused by specific enteric agents of different origins; is considered the first step in controlling diarrheal diseases. Methodology: From 2005 to 2007; a hospital-based surveillance was conducted in two locations in Egypt to determine the causes of acute diarrhea in children younger than 5-years seeking treatment. Five additional enteric viral and parasitic pathogens were tested using commercially-available enzyme immunoassays (EIA) to re-evaluate the prevalence of diarrheal pathogens in undiagnosed cases.Results: Adenovirus; astrovirus; norovirus and G. lamblia were detected as the sole pathogen in 2 (n=34); 3 (n=56); 9 (n=191) and 7 (n=146) of the cases; respectively. E. histolytica was never detected as the sole pathogen. The percentage of diarrheal cases with a known cause increased significantly; from 48 (n=1;006) to 74 (n=1;568) (P0.0001). Conclusion: In our study; the incorporation of immunoassays yielded useful data in identifying pathogens in previously pathogen-negative diarrhea cases

potential risk of contracting Toxocariasis in heliopolis district, Cairo, Egypt

Out of 600 soil samples collected from 3 sport clubs and 3 public parks within Heliopolis District, 182 samples contained Toxocara species eggs, with an overall prevalence rate of 30.3%. Public parks especially children's sand boxes had the highest percentage of the recovered eggs. Prevalence did not vary greatly from winter to summer, though more viable eggs were noticed in the samples collected in winter. The findings demonstrated the potential risk of contracting toxocariasis [VLM] by children playing in the sand boxes of the investigated areas