Very few recent studies have been done in South Africa on the occurrence or prevalence of
parasites in humans. Based on the results of routine examinations for parasitic infections
conducted in the Microbiology Laboratory of Ampath in Pretoria, this study focuses on the
spectrum of parasites diagnosed in samples from humans in Gauteng, North West and
Mpumalanga provinces between 2009 and 2010. Database searches for results of samples in
which parasites were positively identified were conducted using the laboratory’s internal
software system. Data of the positive results were exported and sorted according to date,
specimen type, parasite identified, patient age, gender and geographic locality. Results
showed that a total of 24 different species of parasites were identified in the laboratory over the
two-year period. The overall numbers of parasites identified, according to the data searches,
were 863 and 1061 in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The following parasites were identified:
Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba histolytica, Endolimax nana, Acanthamoeba sp,
Giardia intestinalis, Trichomonas hominis, Trichomonas vaginalis, Chilomastix mesnili,
Blastocystis hominis, Cryptosporidium spp, Cystoisospora belli, Sarcocystis sp,
Enterobius vermicularis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, ancylostomatids (hookworm),
Taenia saginata, Taenia solium, Dipylidium caninum, Inermicapsifer madagascariensis,
Bertiella studeri, Schistosoma haematobium, Echinococcus granulosus and
Cordylobia anthropophaga. In both years, the majority of cases originated from Gauteng
Province followed by North West and Mpumalanga provinces. The data were summarized
descriptively and compared with available published records. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/41448 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Du Plooy, Ilze |
| Contributors | Schwan, Ernst Volker, dp.ilze@gmail.com |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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