This
review focuses on studies concerning
cryptosporidiosis in three
Asian countries.
Cryptosporidium spp.
infection was investigated in
children<12 years old afflicted with diarrhoea and admitted to the paediatric
hospitals in
Iraq,
Jordan and
Malaysia. Most of the
patients complained of
abdominal pain, watery diarrhoea and mild-to-severe
dehydration. Stool samples were collected from
children and five
methods were used to detect
oocysts of
Cryptosporidium spp. includingdirect wet mount, Sheather’s
sugar flotation,
formalin-
ether sedimentation, modified Ziehl-Neelsen and direct fluorescent antibody (DFA). The
infection rate was 8.56, 37.3 and 4.6 in
Iraq,
Jordan and
Malaysia respectively. A combination of
formalin ether sedimentation and
acid fast
stain was used to detect
Cryptosporidium oocysts in
Iraq. The DFA test showed the highest
sensitivity for samples of
children in
Jordan. In
Malaysia, direct wet mount,
formalin-
ether sedimentation, modified Ziehl-Neelsen and DFA gave the same results (4.62%) while Sheather’s
sugar flotation was 3.85%. Source of
drinking water appeared to be an important
risk factor in
transmission of
infection. In
Jordan, the high rate of
infection was recorded in
rainy season (January–May).