title: Prevalence ofStrongyloides stercoralisand Other Intestinal Parasites among Institutionalized Mentally Disabled Individuals in Rasht, Northern Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We aimed to determine the status of strongyloidiasis in mentally disabled population in the institutional places in Rasht City, the capital of Guilan Province, northern Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted in 8 institutions for mentally retarded population in Rasht in 2013. Before collecting the samples, a questionnaire was filled out for each participant by an expert person. A single stool sample was obtained from each of the 173 subjects and examined using direct wet mount, formalin-ether concentration technique and agar plate culture method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 173 mentally disabled individuals aged 2-57 (25.69±11.56) yr old were studied. Stool examination showed that 51 (29.5%) cases were infected with at least one parasite. Of 173 studied cases only 10 (5.8%) individuals were infected with pathogenic parasites, of which 2 (1.2%) cases were infected withStrongyloides stercoralisand 8 (4.6%) withGiardia lamblia.On the other hand, 42 (24.3%) of the studied population were infected with non-pathogenic intestinal protozoa such asBlastocystis hominis(n=29, 16.8%),Entamoeba coli(n=16, 9.2%) andEndolimax nana(n=4, 2.3%). Mixed protozoal infections were observed in 8 (4.6%) individuals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence rate ofS. stercoralisin mentally disabled individuals in Rasht was somewhat higher than those of normal population of the province. The same picture was seen when the prevalence ofG. lambliaand non-pathogenic protozoa in normal and mentally disabled populations were compared.
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saeidinia
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Ilnaz
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tavakoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Naghipour
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Behnaz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rahmati
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghavami Lahiji
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Salkhori
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran; Research Center for Fascioliasis and Parasitic Diseases, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Keyhan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ashrafi
keywords: Intestinal parasites; Iran; Mentally disabled individuals; Strongyloides stercoralis