Cryptosporidium Parvum Infection among Egyptian School Children

The present studydeterminedcryptosporidiosis among 120 randomly chosen school chi ldren aged 4 -16years.Medical sheets were filled out on each child . Thefresh stool samples wereexaminedbyusing Sheather's sugar flotation stained withmodified ZiehlNeelsen stain. Blood samples were examined by ELISA and IFA techniques. The results revealed that, the prevalence rate was 13.51% withapeak among the age group (5-10)and. significant relation between malesandfemales. There was a significant relation between infection and low soc io-economic level in rural area . Also,a significant relation was obtained betweenthe infection and the presence of animal contact. Watery and loose diarrhea wasmore significant among infected childr en. Positive stool samples wereamong 37 (30.8 %), while ELISA and IFA detected 30 (25 %) and 33 (27.5%) respectively . The validity test of ELISA declared sensitivity andspecificity with 93.3% and 90% while IFA declared 90.9% and 91.1%respectively.