TY - JOUR
T1 - Heavy cryptosporidial infections in children in northeast Brazil
T2 - comparison of Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum
AU - Bushen, Oluma Y.
AU - Kohli, Anita
AU - Pinkerton, Relana C.
AU - Dupnik, Kate
AU - Newman, Robert D.
AU - Sears, Cynthia L.
AU - Fayer, Ronald
AU - Lima, Aldo A.M.
AU - Guerrant, Richard L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by International Collaboration in Infectious Disease Research (ICIDR: 5-U01-AI026512) and in part by Mid Atlantic Regional Centers of Excellence (MARCE U54-AI57168). O.Y.B. was supported by the Infectious Disease Training Grant (5T32-AI007046), and A.K. and K.D. by the Ellison Medical Foundation Grant (ID-T-0019-03) to the Center for Global Health.
PY - 2007/4
Y1 - 2007/4
N2 - Cryptosporidium is an important cause of infectious diarrhoea worldwide, but little is known about the course of illness when infected with different species. Over a period of 5 years, Cryptosporidium was identified in the stools of 58 of 157 children prospectively followed from birth in an urban slum (favela) in northeast Brazil. Forty isolates were available for quantification and 42 for speciation (24 Cryptosporidium hominis and 18 C. parvum). Children with C. hominis shed significantly more oocysts/ml of stool (3.5 × 106 vs. 1.7 × 106 per ml; P = 0.001), and oocyst counts were higher among symptomatic children (P = 0.002). Heavier C. parvum shedding was significantly associated with symptoms (P = 0.004), and symptomatic C. parvum-infected children were significantly more likely than asymptomatic children to be lactoferrin-positive (P = 0.004). Height-for-age (HAZ) Z-scores showed significant declines within 3 months of infection for children infected with either C. hominis (P = 0.028) or C. parvum (P = 0.001). However, in the 3-6 month period following infection, only C. hominis-infected children continued to demonstrate declining HAZ score and asymptomatic children showed even greater decline (P = 0.01). Cryptosporidium hominis is more common than C. parvum in favela children and is associated with heavier infections and greater growth shortfalls, even in the absence of symptoms.
AB - Cryptosporidium is an important cause of infectious diarrhoea worldwide, but little is known about the course of illness when infected with different species. Over a period of 5 years, Cryptosporidium was identified in the stools of 58 of 157 children prospectively followed from birth in an urban slum (favela) in northeast Brazil. Forty isolates were available for quantification and 42 for speciation (24 Cryptosporidium hominis and 18 C. parvum). Children with C. hominis shed significantly more oocysts/ml of stool (3.5 × 106 vs. 1.7 × 106 per ml; P = 0.001), and oocyst counts were higher among symptomatic children (P = 0.002). Heavier C. parvum shedding was significantly associated with symptoms (P = 0.004), and symptomatic C. parvum-infected children were significantly more likely than asymptomatic children to be lactoferrin-positive (P = 0.004). Height-for-age (HAZ) Z-scores showed significant declines within 3 months of infection for children infected with either C. hominis (P = 0.028) or C. parvum (P = 0.001). However, in the 3-6 month period following infection, only C. hominis-infected children continued to demonstrate declining HAZ score and asymptomatic children showed even greater decline (P = 0.01). Cryptosporidium hominis is more common than C. parvum in favela children and is associated with heavier infections and greater growth shortfalls, even in the absence of symptoms.
KW - Brazil
KW - Cryptosporidium
KW - Diarrhoea
KW - Genotype
KW - Lactoferrin
KW - Protozoan infections
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U2 - 10.1016/j.trstmh.2006.06.005
DO - 10.1016/j.trstmh.2006.06.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 16934303
AN - SCOPUS:33846846412
SN - 0035-9203
VL - 101
SP - 378
EP - 384
JO - Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
JF - Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
IS - 4
ER -