Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Renal Transplant Recipients

Background: organ transplant recipients can experience serious diseases from infections due to emerging and reemergingparasitic infections. this study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of intestinal parasites among renal transplant recipientsof iran.methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted from june 2003 to august 2004 on renal transplant recipients in iran. atotal of 706 fecal samples obtained from randomly selected population originated from all over iran. patient’s informationwas recorded in a questionnaire before sampling. a sample of stool was taken from each person. direct wet smear examination,formalin-ether concentration, ziehl-neelsen staining, and agar plate culture were done for each sample.results: totally 32 patients (4.5%) were positive for parasitic infections. in searching for emerging parasitic infections, themost prevalent parasites were found to be blastocystis hominis, giardia lamblia and entamoeba coli, respectively. themerely ova which were seen were related to hymenolepis nana. with investigation of healthy control, no significant differencewas found between transplanted and normal population.conclusion: the population showed controlled rate of intestinal infections probably due to regular awareness concerningrisks of opportunistic infections; albeit regular surveillance through routine examination of stool samples for parasites seemsconsiderably advantages the transplant recipient patients.