Comparison of three methods for detection giardia lamblia and some risk factors associated with infection in diyala province, Iraq

Giardia lamblia is Giardia lamblia is a single-celled flagellated eukaryote microorganism that infects the gastrointestinal tract of human and a variety of other mammalian hosts (Marangi et al., 2010). Many methods was used to diagnose Giardia such as which is still being recommended as the reference standard (Gharavi et al., 2005), immune methods which have been shown to be sensitive and cost-effective compared with microscopic examination (Gharavi et al., 2005) but they still require numerous reagent, washing procedure and incubation steps (Harba et al, 2012). A recently Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR) is developed technique that offers the greatest potential for the detection of a wide range of microorganism including Giardi a in stool. In this study, three method including:Direct smear method, iodine stain method and PCR method was used to detected Giardia in stool samples. The results show that the Direct smear method revealed 53/ 424 Giardia positive cases (12.5%), while iodine stain method diagnosed 55/ 424 cases (12.97%). PCR method detected 62/424 Giardia positive cases (14.62%). More number of males were found to be positive than females and the highest number of positive cases was in the age group <5 years. There was significant difference between infections according to the source of drinking water and the highest rate of infection was in group whose used river as a source of drinking water. The infection was related with the residence of individuals and more number of positive cases were in rural compared with urban. An analysis of number of infection according to number family members showed statistically significant difference among groups and the highest rate of infection were in group with 12 ≥14 members .the recent study concluded that PCR was sensitive method for diagnose of Giardia and the poor sanitary and health habits number of family in addition to age group still the risk factors of infection.