Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Cryptosporidium genotypes and associated risk factors in a cohort of Egyptian children

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Comparative Clinical Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cryptosporidium is one of the most common, worldwide diarrheal diseases caused by parasites. Due to absence of an effective treatment, determining the prevailing species of Cryptosporidium is a key in identifying its transmission dynamics and a necessary precursor required for the planning and implementation of effective preventive and control strategies. This PCR-RFLP study was done to determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium species in the stool of a cohort of Egyptian children and evaluate/assess associated risk factors for susceptibility to cryptosporidiosis, due to the lack of existent studies addressing Cryptosporidium transmission dynamics in humans and assessed risk factors in Egypt. Stool samples were collected from 431 children; 331 diarrheic and 100 apparently healthy non-diarrheic children; their data were recorded. Samples were processed for Copro-nPCR targeting Hsp90 gene and PCR-RFLP analysis for species identification. Variables which showed statistical significance for Cryptosporidium were included in a logistic regression analysis to identify the estimated risk. Out of 84 (19.5%) Cryptosporidium-positive samples (78 diarrheic and 6 non-diarreic), 75 (89.3%) were Cryptosporidium hominis, 6 (7.1%) were Cryptosporidium parvum, and 3 (3.6%) were non-typed. There was a significant association between Cryptosporidium detection in stool and the estimated risk factors: diarrhea, soft stool, and drinking from tap water. Cryptosporidium is an indigenous, prevailing intestinal parasite among children in Cairo that physicians must consider, especially in diarrheic, preschool-aged children, who drink from tap water. The finding of a predominance of C. hominis indicates anthroponotic rather than zoonotic transmission.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Referenes

  • Abd El-Kader MN, Blanco M, Tammam MA, Abd El Ghaffar AB, Osman A, El Sheikh N, Rubio JM, de Fuentes I (2011) Detection of Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis in human patients in Cairo, Egypt. Parasitol Res 110(1):2465–2470. doi:10.1007/s00436-011-2465-6

    Google Scholar 

  • Akiyoshi DE, Mor S, Tzipori S (2003) Rapid displacement of Cryptosporidium parvum type 1 by type 2 in mixed infections in piglets. Infect Immun 71(10):5765–5771

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Brikan FA, Salem HS, Beeching N, Hilal N (2008) Multilocus genetic analysis of Cryptosporidium isolates from Saudi Arabia. J Egypt Soc Parasitol 38:645–658

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Warid HS, AL-Saqur IM, Mahmood SH (2012) Occurrence of Cryptosporidium spp. among people live in north of Baghdad. Eur J Sci Res 78(4):539–545

    Google Scholar 

  • Beach MJ (2008) Waterborne: recreational water in: Fayer, R. and Xiao, L. eds. 2008. Cryptosporidium and cryptosporidiosis. 2nd edition USA: Taylors & Francis Group 355–361.

  • Bushen OY, Kohli A, Pinkerton RC, Dupnik K, Newman RD, Sears CL, Fayer R, Lima AA, Guerrant RL (2007) Heavy cryptosporidial infections in children in northeast Brazil: comparison of Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 101(4):278–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cama VA, Bern C, Roberts J, Cabrera L, Sterling CR, Ortega Y, Gilman RH, Xiao L (2008) Cryptosporidium species and subtypes and clinical manifestation in children, Peru. Emerg Infect Dis 14(10):1567–1574

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chauret C, Springthorpe S, Sattar S (1999) Fate of Cryptosporidium oocysts, Giardia cysts, and microbial indicators during wastewater treatment and anaerobic sludge digestion. Can J Microbiol 45(3):257–262

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eida AM, Eida MM, El-Desoky A (2009) Pathological studies of different genotypes of human Cryptosporidium Egyptian isolates in experimentally mice. J Egypt Soc Parasitol 39(3):975–990

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • El-Settawy MA, Fathy GM (2012) Evaluation and comparison of PCR, coproantigen ELISA and microscopy for diagnosis of Cryptosporidium in human diarrhoeic specimens. J Am Sci 8(12):1378–1385

    Google Scholar 

  • Elwin K, Hadfield SJ, Robinson G, Crouch ND, Chalmers RM (2012) Cryptosporidium viatorum sp. among travellers returning to Great Britain from the Indian subcontinent, 2007–2011. Int J Parasitol 42:675–682

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fathy MM, Abdelrazek NM, Hassan FA, El-Badry AA (2014) Molecular copro-prevalence of cryptosporidium in Egyptian children and evaluation of three diagnostic methods. Indian Pediatr 51(8):727–729

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fayer R, Santín M, Macarisin D (2010) Cryptosporidium ubiquitum sp. in animals and humans. Vet Parasitol 172:23–32

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Feng Y, Dearen T, Cama V, Xiao L (2009) 90-kilodalton heat shock protein, Hsp90, as a target for genotyping Cryptosporidium spp. known to infect humans. Eukaryot Cell 8(4):478–482

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Garvey P, McKeown P (2009) Epidemiology of human cryptosporidiosis in Ireland 2004-2006: analysis of national notification data. Eur Secur 14(8):1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghallab MMI, Abdel-Aziz IZ, Shoeib EY, El-Badry AA (2016) Laboratory utility of coproscopy, copro immunoassays and copro nPCR assay targeting Hsp90 gene for detection of Cryptosporidium in children, Cairo, Egypt. J Parasit Dis 40(3):901–905

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goh S, Reacher M, Casemore DP, Verlander NQ, Chalmers R, Knowles M, Williams J, Osborn K, Richards S (2004) Sporadic cryptosporidiosis, North Cumbria, England, 1996–2000. Emerg Infect Dis 10(6):1007–1015

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hijjawi N, Ng J, Yang R, Atoum MF, Ryan U (2010) Identification of rare and novel Cryptosporidium GP60 subtypes in human isolates from Jordan. Exp Parasitol 125:161–164

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Iqbal J, Khalid N, Hira PR (2011) Cryptosporidiosis in Kuwaiti children: association of clinical characteristics with Cryptosporidium species and subtypes. J Med Microbiol 60(5):647–652

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McLauchlin J, Pedraza-Diaz S, Amar-Hoetzeneder C, Nicholas GL (1999) Genetic characterization of Cryptosporidium strains from 218 patients with diarrhea diagnosed as having sporadic cryptosporidiosis. J Clin Microbiol 37:3153–3158

    PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McLauchlin J, Amar C, Pedraza-Diaz S, Nichols GL (2000) Molecular epidemiological analysis of Cryptosporidium spp. in the United Kingdom: results of genotyping Crvptosporidium spp. in 1705 fecal samples from humans and 105 fecal samples from livestock animals. J Clin Microhiol 38:3984–3990

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mumtaz S, Ahmed J, Ali L (2010) Frequency of Cryptosporidium infection in children under five years of age having diarrhea in the north west of Pakistan. Afr J Biotechnol 9(8):1230–1235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nair P, Jamal A, Mohamed HL, DuPont JF, Figueroa LG, Carlin ZJ, Jiang ZD, Belkind-Gerson J, Martinez-Sandoval FG, Okhuysen PC (2008) Epidemiology of cryptosporidiosis in North American travelers to Mexico. AmJTrop Med Hyg 79(2):210–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Samie A, Bessong PO, Obi CL, Sevilleja JE, Stroup S, Houpt E, Guerrant RL (2006) Cryptosporidium species: preliminary descriptions of the prevalence and genotype distribution among school children and hospital patients in the Venda Region, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Exp Parasitol 114(4):314–322

  • Saneian H, Yaghini1 O, Yaghini A, Modarresi1 MA, Soroshnia M (2010) Infection rate of Cryptosporidium parvum among diarrheic children in Isfahan. Iran J Pediat 20(3):343–347

  • Savioli L, Smith H, Thompson A (2006) Giardia and Cryptosporidium join the ‘Neglected Diseases Initiative’. Trends Parasitol 22(5):203–208

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith HV, Cacciò SM, Tait A, McLauchlin J, Thompson RC (2006) Tools for investigating the environmental transmission of Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections in humans. Trends Parasitol 22:160–167

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sulaiman IM, Hira PR, Zhou L, Al-Ali FM, Al-Shelahi FA, Shweiki HM, Iqbal J, Khalid N, Xiao L (2005) Unique endemicity of cryptosporidiosis in children in Kuwait. J Clin Microbiol 43(6):2805–2809

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao L, Fayer R (2008) Molecular characterisation of species and genotypes of Cryptosporidium and Giardia and assessment of zoonotic transmission. Int J Parasitol 38(11):1239–1255

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mrs. Sieglear for language editing and proofreading of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology—Medical Parasitology Section, College of Medicine, University of Dammam, P.O. Box: 2114, Dammam, 31451, Saudi Arabia

    Ayman A. El-Badry

  2. Medical Parasitology Department, Kasr Al-Ainy Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    Inas Z. Abdel Aziz, Eman Y. Shoeib & Marwa M.I. Ghallab

  3. Medical Parasitology, Kafr El-Sheikh Faculty of Medicine, Kafr El-Sheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt

    Marwa M.I. Ghallab

Authors
  1. Ayman A. El-Badry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Inas Z. Abdel Aziz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eman Y. Shoeib
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marwa M.I. Ghallab
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All manuscript authors contributed to every aspect of the reported research: the idea for the research paper, the study design, the collection of materials, the methodology, the writing of the paper, and the reviewing/editing of the material presented in it.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ayman A. El-Badry.

Ethics declarations

Funding

Self funded by authors.

Ethical approval

This study was ethically approved by the “Research Ethical Committee,” Deanship of postgraduate education & scientific research, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University in compliance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from patients or their relatives and parents of young children before they responded to the questionnaire.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

El-Badry, A.A., Abdel Aziz, I.Z., Shoeib, E.Y. et al. Cryptosporidium genotypes and associated risk factors in a cohort of Egyptian children. Comp Clin Pathol 26, 1017–1021 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-017-2477-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-017-2477-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation