PREVALENCE OF ENTEROCYTOZOON-BIENEUSI SPO RES IN STOOLS OF AIDS PATIENTS AND OF HIV-NEGATIVE AFRICAN CHILDREN

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a newly described microsporidia in humans t hought to be responsible for chronic diarrhoea in acquired immunodefic iency syndrome (AIDS) patients. The epidemiology of this parasite is s till unknown; it could be a strictly opportunistic agent or a human en teropathogen. E. bieneusi spores were searched for in stool smears of two populations using a modified chromotrope 2R staining. The first po pulation consisted of 60 patients infected by the human immunodeficien cy virus (HIV) and the second of 990 children aged from one month to s ix years consulting two primary care centers in Niamey, Niger. E. bien eusi spores were found in 4 out of the 60 HIV-positive patients (7 %). These 4 patients belonged to a subgroup of 35 patients with < 50 CD4 cells/mul. Out of 990 children, 8 shed E. bieneusi spores in their sto ols; the presence of spores was not associated with a particular clini cal phenotype (diarrhoea, fever, dehydratation, vomiting). Although HI V status could not be evaluated, the HIV prevalence rate among women c onsulting the same care centers was low (0,5 %) and it is therefore un likely that all eight children were HIV-infected. The results show for the first time that E. bieneusi can infest HIV-negative subjects. Mic rosporidiosis is frequent in AIDS patients with low CD4 cell counts. F urther work is needed to define the prevalence and the possible pathog enic effect of E. bieneusi in immunocompetent subjects.