Prevalence of infection with Cryptosporidium parvumand Cyclospora cayetanensis among internationaltravellers

Background—Cryptosporidium parvumand Cyclospora cayetanensis are recognised aspossible pathogens of traveller's diarrhoea.
Aims—To identify the prevalence of C parvumand Cyc cayetanensis in travellers returning fromdeveloping countries.
Patients—Nine hundred and seventy eight stoolsamples were taken from 795 patients returning from developing countries.
Methods—Microscopy (iron-haematoxylinstain, SAF concentration, modified acid fast stain) and a commerciallyavailable enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for thedetection of Cryptosporidium antigen in stool.
Results—Of the 795 patients in the study, 469 suffered from diarrhoea. Infection with Cyc cayetanensiscould be detected in five subjects (1.1%) by acid fast stain, and 13 patients (2.8%) were infected with C parvum. Onevaluation, the antigen capture ELISA turned out to be clearly lesssensitive for detection of C parvum than microscopy. Allpatients with either C parvum or Cyccayetanensis infection suffered from watery diarrhoea.
Conclusions—C parvum and Cyccayetanensis are not major causes of diarrhoea in internationaltravellers. In cases of persistent watery diarrhoea, however, thesepathogens should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis.

Keywords:diarrhoea; Cryptosporidium parvum; Cyclospora cayetanensis