Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitic Infestation in Anemic Patients Attended to Al-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital at Al-Qadisiyah Province/Iraq

The present study was conducted from November 2016 to October 2018 at Al-Diwaniyah teaching hospital (Al-Qadisiyah province/Iraq) to investigate the prevalence of intestinal parasites in anemic patients using conventional classical methods. Stool and blood samples were collected from 974 patients to detected the parasite, the RBC count, PVC and the Hb level. The result shows overall of anemic patients, parasitic infestation was 64 % were positives. Among positive infested patients, exhibiting multiple parasitic infestations accounted for 45 %, while patients with single parasitic infestation accounted for 55 %. Wet amount and staining method were used to detect the intestinal parasite and the results shows protozons trophozoite and cyst of Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, Balantidium coli, and the oocyst of Cryptosporidium while the result detects the egg of helminthes were Enterobius vermicularis, Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides, Ancylostoma duodenale and Strongyloides stercoralis. Concerning to social factors (age, gender, and residence), significant elevation (P less than 0.05) were observed in groups of less than 10 years (85.87%), males (69.57%), and rural areas (80.37%). Values (Mean ± Standard error) of RBCs indices showed that there were significant decreases (P less than 0.05) in total RBCs count [(3.87± 0.23)  106/l], Hb [(10.62±0.86) g/dl], MCH [(27.44± 1.36) pg], and MCHC [(27.87± 2.75) g/dl]; and significant increases (P less than 0.05) in values of PCV [(38.11±1.49) %], and MCV [(98.48±3.65) fl]. Macrocytic (62.26%) and normocytic (51.73%) were the commonest types of anemia reported among infested and non-infested patients, respectively. Association between species of intestinal parasites and type of anemia were detected in this study. It showed that E. vermicularis (91.19%), B. coli(45.59%), and A. duodenale (91.67%) were significantly prevalent (P less than 0.05) among macrocytic, normocytic and microcytic anemic patients, respectively.