The majority of
Giardia infections are transmitted by the fecal-oral route and cause giardiasis. Children who live in crowded conditions or low socio-economic areas are the risk group for
Giardia infection. Interestingly, most of them are asymptomatic or only mildly infected and can shed the
Giardia cysts in the environment. Thus, the diagnosis of
Giardia infection in asymptomatic or mild infection plays an important role in achieving control of
Giardia duodenalis transmission. The objective of this study was to examine parasitic infections using microscopy and to develop a real-time PCR method for detection of
Giardia infection in the stool samples of children living on the Thai-Myanmar border. Both species-specific primers and fluorescent labeled
G. duodenalis probe were designed using small-subunit ribosomal RNA (
ssrRNA). The results showed that 10 (7.69%) and 40 (30.77%) of 130 stool samples were positive for
G. duodenalis by microscopy and real-time PCR respectively. Only 3 out of 9 liquid stools revealed
G. duodenalis positive using microscopy, but all of them were
G. duodenalis-positive using real-time PCR. The detection limit of real-time PCR for
G. duodenalis was 0.1 pg/25 µl reaction. It can detect both mild and asymptomatic
Giardia infections in children living on the Thai-Myanmar border.
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