The prevalence of anemia among children infected with Entamoeba histolytica in Baghdad

Abstract

The relation between Entamoeba histolytica and anemia has lately had muchattention. The aim of this study was to determine the possible correlation betweenanemia and parasitic intestinal infection with E.histolytica in children fromBaghdad-Iraq. This study was conducted from October 2018 to April 2019 indifferent hospitals, primary health care centers, and primary schools. Eighty-onechildren participated in this study and their ages were between 1 and 12 years. Theparticipants were divided into two groups based on their general microscopic stoolexamination. The first group was diagnosed as E.histolytica infected group (n=47),while no pathogens were detected in the stool samples of the second group whichwas considered as a healthy control (n=34). Blood samples were taken from allsubjects and tested for haemoglobin level, serum ferritin, serum iron, total bindingiron capacity (TBIC) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV). Nutritional status wasalso evaluated for all children aged ≥5 years old. Results showed that the prevalenceof anemia was higher in children infected with E.histolytica compared with thecontrol subjects. Anemia was largely reported among children aged 1-3 years forboth E.histolytica infected children and control subjects. The results also illustratedthat both haemoglobin and iron levels were significantly (p˂0.05) lower inE.histolytica infected children compared with control subjects, while non-significantdifferences (p˃0.05) were observed in the level of ferritin between E.histolyticainfected children and control subjects, although the ferritin was lower in E.hisolyticainfected group. The results showed that both gender and age are significantly relatedto low serum iron levels in both infected and control groups. Significantrelationshipswere also noticed between each of the anemia types and the nutritionalstatus with the E.histolytca infection. Microcytic anemia as well as high records ofsevere malnutrition were observed in the majority of E. histolytica infected childrenThese findings indicate that anemia is more expected to be present in childreninfected with E.histolytica. Therefore, efforts should be focused on health educationof populations at high risk of both anemia and E.histolytica.