Current Pediatric Research

Background: Giardia lamblia is one of the most public intestinal protozoa in a large number of vertebrates. This parasite causes giardiasis infection in affected people. So far, several scattered reports have shown the existence of a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) virus called Giardia Lamblia Virus (GLV) in different Giardia species using molecular methods. The current study aimed to detect of GLV in G. lamblia species diagnosed in fecal samples of Iraqi patients. Materials and Methods: In this study that was done from December 2018 to July 2019, 750 specimens of stool were collected from patients who attended to hospitals in the Najaf Al-Ashraf province, Iraq. The G. lamblia occurrence was examined by direct smear with Lugol’s iodine, concentration by formalin ethyl acetate and PCR. The quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) used for GLVscreening. Results: The Lugol’s iodine smear revealed that 13.3% (n=100/750) of samples had positive results for G. lamblia. Also, the formalin ethyl acetate concentration technique showed similar results. The G. lamblia was detected in 80% (n=80/100) of fecal samples using PCR. The results of RT-qPCR showed that 12 samples (15%) had positive results for GLV while 68 specimens (85%) had negative results. Conclusion: This study exposed the presence of GLV in 15% of G. lamblia isolates collected from Iraqi patients. It is recommended to perform the sequencing analysis of these viruses in future project and compare them with the existing Gene bank sequences.

Author(s): Sundus Nsaif AL-Huchaimi*, Thikra Abdullah Mahmood, Luma H Ali

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