Investigation of the Association between COVID 19 Infection, Gastrointestinal Manifestations, Parasitic Diseases and Antiparasitic Treatment: An Electronic Data Compilation | ||
| Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences, G. Microbiology | ||
| Article 8, Volume 14, Issue 1, June 2022, Pages 85-99 PDF (853.64 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/eajbsg.2022.226672 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Alshaimaa M. Hamed1; Eman H. Elsebaie2; Hoda A.A. Shaheen3; Amal Mahfouz4; Marwa D.A. Hasan5; Magda S. Abdeltawab6 | ||
| 1Medical Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University | ||
| 2Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt | ||
| 3Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine for Girls Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. | ||
| 4Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Modern University for Technology and Information, Cairo, Egypt. - Egyptian Drug Authority, Giza, Egypt. | ||
| 5Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt. | ||
| 6Medical Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Background: COVID 19 pandemic has posed great challenges to national and international health organizations. This health burden is exaggerated in middle and low-income countries, due to the endemicity of parasitic diseases. Pre-existing parasitic infections and antiparasite drug therapy may modify the host's immune response to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and can attenuate the severity of disease presentation. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was done to investigate the possible association between COVID-19 syndrome, gastrointestinal manifestations, parasitic diseases and antiparasitic treatment. A non-probability convenient sampling technique was used to recruit participants, through electronic data collection. Results: The mean age of the survey respondents reporting a positive history of COVID 19 infection was 35.69±12.24 years. Study participants with a positive COVID 19 history have reported a positive history of gastrointestinal disorders in 40.9% of 93 patients responding to that question. Twenty-six out of 95 (27.4%) participants reporting a positive history of COVID 19 also reported a previous history of parasitic infection, while 22 (15.6%) subjects out of 141 individuals with a negative history of COVID 19 infection had a past experience of parasitic infection (P=0.028) Among the parasitic infections stated was amoebiasis, giardiasis and enterobiasis. Conclusions: The higher incidence recorded of parasitic infections among subjects with a positive history of COVID-19 suggests that parasite co-infection 3 may lead predispose to a high incidence of COVID-19, which conflicts with other literature data reporting a protective effect of parasitosis against SARS CoV-2 infection. More extensive survey studies targeting larger populations are of crucial importance, especially in developing countries. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| COVID 19- Gastrointestinal Manifestations; electronic data collection and Parasitic Diseases | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 277 PDF Download: 288 |
||
