Prevalence of Intestinal Microsporidia in Patients with  Intellectual Disabilities in Rehabilitation Centers of Hormozgan Province, Southern Iran

Fatima  Kamrani; Mostafa  Omidian; Habibollah  Turki; Mahmoud  Agholi; Bahador  Sarkari

doi:10.18502/ijpa.v20i2.19029

Fatima Kamrani Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Mostafa Omidian Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Habibollah Turki Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Hormozgan Health Institute, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
Mahmoud Agholi Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran
Bahador Sarkari Basic Sciences in Infectious Diseases Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijpa.v20i2.19029

Keywords: Prevalence; Microsporidiosis; Enterocytozoon bieneusi; Intellectual disabilities; Iran; Nested-PCR

Abstract

Background: The present study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of intestinal microsporidia in patients with intellectual disabilities in the rehabilitation centers of Hormozgan Province in south of Iran, using microscopic and molecular methods.

Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 119 stool samples obtained from patients with intellectual disabilities. Acid-fast trichrome staining was used to detect parasites. Moreover, all of the stool samples were assessed for the presence of microsporidia DNA by the PCR method.

Results: The mean age of the subjects was 29 (±12.3) years. All stool samples were examined for microsporidia infection, and only one case of Enterocytozoon was detected in one of the samples. The results of the nested-PCR test on 119 stool samples showed one case of infection with Enterocytozoon bieneusi, corresponding to a prevalence of 0.84%. The nested-PCR test for Encephalitozoon intestinalis detected no infections in any of the stool samples.

Conclusion: The overall prevalence of microsporidia among patients with intellectual disabilities in Hormozgan rehabilitation centers is low and limited to E. bieneusi.