15 Prevalence of intestinal.pmd

1Paediatric Digestive Disease Research Centre, Mofid Children’s Hospital, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran (Correspondence to A.A. Sayyari: [email protected]). 2Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. 3Department of Gastroenterology, Henri Mondor Hospital, Paris University XII, Creteil, France. Received: 06/05/03; accepted: 15/03/04 ABSTRACT A national survey of the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in the Islamic Republic of Iran was made on a random sample of families covered by local health centres affiliated to the medical universities. Out of 53 995 people aged 2+ years, from 12 495 families (0.1% of all families in 1999), 45 128 stool samples were analysed by formalin–ether precipitation. Intestinal parasitic infections were found in 19.3% of the study population (19.7% male, 19.1% female). Giardia lamblia (10.9%), Ascaris lumbricoides (1.5%), Entamoeba histolytica (1.0%) and Enterobius vermicularis (0.5%) were the most common infections. The infection rate was highest in the 2–14 years age group (25.5%) and in rural residents (23.7%).