Fungal and parasitic infections among institutionalized elderly in Alexandria

ABSTRACT

A total of 190 elderly [mean age 73.07 +/- 8.92 years] and 29 workers serving at these institutions were included in this study. Clinical evidence of superficial fungal infections was detected in 37.9% of the elderly. The most frequent clinical types were foot infection [61.1%], followed by intertriginous lesions [44.4%] and onychomycosis [33.3%]. Microscopic examination revealed that significantly higher percentages of samples from intramammary infection, foot lesion and onychomycosis showed the presence of yeast. Results of parasitological study indicated that protozoal infection was more prevalent than helminthic infection among both elderly [9.6% and 2.6%] and workers [16% and 4%], respectively. Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichura and Fasciola species were the helminths encountered in this study, while Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica were the protozoal infections. Among elderly, bad hygiene was associated with a significant high rate of infection, while females and eating outside the institution were associated with nonsignificant high infection rates