Shift in parasitic infections during the Corona pandemic: A hospital-based retrospective study

Abstract

The Corona pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) calls on the Saudi government to take action to control the infection. The government closed borders, prohibited travel, limited outdoor movements, and told primary and secondary care faci l i ti es to reduce al l regul ar non-urgent heal th servi ces. It i s not known whether these measures have impacted the prevalence of parasitic intestinal infections. This study has therefore been carri ed out to i nvesti gate thi s i ssue. Dataset of 217 stool sampl es submitted to the King Faisal Medical Complex (KFMC) Microbiology Laboratory in Taif, Saudi Arabia for parasitological examination during the pandemic (January-June 2020) and 649 samples submitted during the corresponding months of the previous year (January-June 2019) were extracted and analyzed. Overall, 24.1% (209/866) of samples were parasites-positives; 26.6% (173/649) before and 16.5% (36/217) during the pandemic, with 79% reduction. There was a significant difference in gender-parasitism between the two periods where the majority of parasitism were for males (p<0.001). Infections were frequent in patients aged 5-14 years both before (84/649; 12.9%) and during (12/217; 5.5%) the pandemic, with significant difference observed between the two cohorts (p<0.002). Moreover, the majority of infected patients were non-Saudi (67.9%; 142/209), with a significant difference in nationality reported, (p=0.024). Protozoa were identified in 21.8% (189) of all samples investigated, of which, Blastocystis hominis, Entamoeba coli, Gi ardia lambl ia, Entamoeba histolytica/dispar and Cryptosporidium species were identified in 6.1% (53), 5.4% (47), 5.0% (44), 2.8% (25), and 2.3% (20), respectively. Helminths were diagnosed in 2.3% (20/866) of samples. Eggs of hookworm, Ascaris, Taenia spp, and Hymenolepis nana were detected in 0.9% (8), 0.5% (5), 0.3% (3) and 0.4% (4), respecti vel y. In paral l el wi th our research hypothesi s, a substanti al decrease i n the burden of intestinal parasitic infections was recorded with the lock-down measures taken during the Corona pandemic.