in vitro culture and isoenzyme analysis of giardia lamblia

years. Figure 2.1 illustrates age distribution for these samples. The majority of the
children (68%) were between the ages 2-5 years. Five of the 78 were obtained from
adults while no ages were indicated in the hospital records in 9 samples.
Age distribution for Giardia positive
sam pies (from children) retrieved
from the KEH laboratory (n=64)
..
8 0
7 0
60
~ 5 0
.;;; 40
o
~ 30
2 0
1 0
o
0-2 3 m 2 - 5 Y 6 - 1 2 Y
age
1_ % po s itiv e 1
Fig.2.1 Illustrates the percentage age distribution for 64 of 78 patients whose faecal
samples (submitted to KEH microbiology laboratory between January 1996 and
December 1997) were harbouring Giardia. Approximately 69% of the patients were
children aged between 2 and 5 years.
The percentage of Giardia positive samples ranged between 0,36 (July 1996) and
4,11 (May 1997) as shown in Table 2. 4 and Giardia was not detected from samples
submitted during the months of May and October 1996. It should be noted, that
many confounding factors in this sample population do not allow for determination
of real prevalence: (i) the submitted samples were obtained from patients who came
from different geographical areas because KEH is a referral hospital for many faroutlying
areas (ii) the sample population comprised of a mixture of adults and
children (iii) direct microscopic screening is known to be less sensitive than the
concentration methods, therefore real prevalence would be underestimated.
51