BACKGROUND: To study the incidence of Cryptosporidium infections over an eight year period in an urban area, together with the patients background and the season of the year. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 1989 to December 1996, all 32,733 stool samples from 13,639 patients: children and immunocompromised adults, with presumed infective diarrhoea, were investigated for Cryptosporidium oocysts by the Department of Microbiology, Miguel Servet Hospital, Zaragoza (Spain). RESULTS: Cryptosporidial infection was identified in a 3% of the total children, been the positivity rate highest in the 2-year old group. We visualized oocysts in the 8% of the immunocompromised patients, all of them HIV-positive. The prevalence was higher in winter (February-March). CONCLUSIONS: According to these findings we conclude that Cryptosporidium should be systematically searched by clinical laboratories, specially in children and in immunocompromised patients suffering from infectious diarrhoea.
BACKGROUND: To study the incidence of Cryptosporidium infections over an eight year period in an urban area, together with the patients background and the season of the year. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 1989 to December 1996, all 32,733 stool samples from 13,639 patients: children and immunocompromised adults, with presumed infective diarrhoea, were investigated for Cryptosporidium oocysts by the Department of Microbiology, Miguel Servet Hospital, Zaragoza (Spain). RESULTS: Cryptosporidial infection was identified in a 3% of the total children, been the positivity rate highest in the 2-year old group. We visualized oocysts in the 8% of the immunocompromised patients, all of them HIV-positive. The prevalence was higher in winter (February-March). CONCLUSIONS: According to these findings we conclude that Cryptosporidium should be systematically searched by clinical laboratories, specially in children and in immunocompromised patients suffering from infectious diarrhoea.