Cryptosporidium parvum infection in wellnourished and malnourished children without diarrhea in a Mexican rural population

Cryptosporidium parvum is associated with diarrheic disease and mainly affe cts children and immunocompromised hosts. In most of the cases, cryptospori diosis infection is asymptomatic in immunocompetent subjects. The objective s of the study were to determine the frequency of asymptomatic infection ca used by the parasite in children with and without malnutrition and to deter mine the risk factors associated to infection. Methods. Children from one t o fifteen years old without diarrhea were included, somatometry were perfor med. The socioeconomic and sanitary conditions were investigated for each f amily and community. The Faust method and Kinyoun stain were employed ident ify parasites and Cryptosporidium parvum in feces. Odds ratio (OR), 95% con fidence intervals (75% CI), chi (2) Mantel-Haenszel, Fisher exact test and chi (2) trends were calculated. Results. One hundred thirty two children we re included. In 10/132 (7.5%) cysts of Cryptosporidium were found, 7/71 in children with malnutrition (9.8%) and 3/61 without malnutrition (4.9%) p = 0.23. 69.7% of the children had parasitosis. According to the presence of C . parvum in feces, the different factors calculated were: Diarrhea in famil y OR = 5.82 (95%IC 0.86 - 39.18), not hand washing OR = 5.08 (95%IC 0.62 - 110.49), age less than 5 years old OR = 4.90 (95%IC 0.60 - 106.9), drinking non-potable water OR = 3.34 (95%IC 0.40 - 73.01) and malnutrition 2.11 (95 %IC 0.46 - 10.89). Association was found between the number of people in th e same house and the risk of infection (p = 0.005). The presence of diarrhe a in the family (OR = 4.15, 95%IC 0.47 - 36.91) and drinking non-potable wa ter (OR = 4.19, 95%IC 0.48 - 36.32) were the significant factors in the reg ression logistic model. Conclusions. The frequency of Cryptosporidium infec tion were 75%. Diarrhea in the family, overcrowding and drinking non-potabl e water were associated with C. parvum infection, malnutrition was not a si gnificant risk factor.