Prevalence of blastocystis hominis among "healthy" food handlers in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

A prospective study was carried out to see the prevalence of B. hominis in food handlers in Dammam, Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. A total of 17073 food handlers were examined, 8.50% persons were positive for this organism in their stool. In 2.4% of the food handlers, B. hominis was the only parasite, whereas in 1.9% and 4.2% of the cases, this organism was found in association with pathogenic and non pathogenic parasites respectively. We could find the correlation between the dietary habits and the presence of organism in stool. In l9.9 of the positive food handlers in whom rice was the predominant food the organism was seen, when compared to 80.1% of the predominantly wheat eaters

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus among bilharziasis patients

Hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection with concurrent Schistosoma mansoni infestation has emerged as a major cause of chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HCV among bilharzia patients. The study was conducted at the Viral Diagnostic and Parasitology Departments, Regional Laboratory and Blood Bank, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from August 1999 to July 2000. Sera from a total of 405 patients, including 356 Saudi nationals and 49 non-Saudis, who had a clinical suspicion of bilharziasis were tested, using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for HCV infection and indirect hemagglutination tests for Schistosoma infestation. Diagnosis of schistosomiasis was made when serum anti-schistosoma antibody titer was either equal to or more than 1:256. A total of 39 cases out of 405 tested positive for bilharzia antibodies comprising of 22 [44.9%] non-Saudi and 17 [4.8%] Saudi individuals. Among these patients 7[17.9%] were found to have evidence of HCV infection. Of the 7 patients tested positive for HCV antibodies, there were 4 [26.7%] Egyptians, 2 [11.8%] Saudis and one [14.3%] Middle-Eastern. Our data shows that a good proportion [17.9%] of patients with bilharziasis had HCV infection. The percentage positive for HCV antibody were 26.7% in Egyptians, which is higher when compared to other nationals and Saudis