Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

An overview of the prevalence and distribution of gastrointestinal parasitic infections in post-war Iraq

Noor Abdulhaleem^1,2, Aliyu Mahmuda^1,3, Al-Zihiry Khalid Jameel Khadim³, Roslaini Abd Majid¹, Leslie Than Thian Lung¹, Wan Omar Abdullah⁵, Zasmy Unyah¹

¹Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Malaysia; ²Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Anbar, Anbar, Iraq; ³Department of Parasitology and Entomology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria; ⁴Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Thi-Qar, Thi-Qar, Iraq; ⁵Department of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Islamic Sciences University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For correspondence:- Zasmy Unyah Email: ngah@upm.edu.my Tel:+60132213516

Received: 10 January 2017 Accepted: 17 May 2017 Published: 29 June 2017

Citation: Abdulhaleem N, Mahmuda A, Khadim AK, Majid RA, Lung LT, Abdullah WO, et al. An overview of the prevalence and distribution of gastrointestinal parasitic infections in post-war Iraq. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(6):1443-1451 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i6.32

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Many modern-day diagnostic tests for parasitic diseases rely on conventional labour-intensive technologies such as serology and microscopy. Although major advances have been recorded in the diagnosis of infectious diseases in humans, parasitic diseases continue to present challenges, particularly in resource-poor countries, and this is mainly attributable to war and famine. Factors such as poverty, deteriorated health facilities and destruction of infrastructure are the consequence of the lack of suitable sanitary practices and proper hygiene, especially in refugee camps, that adversely promote infectious diseases to migrants, particularly among vulnerable children. Generally, the gastrointestinal tract is the predilection site for most helminths and protozoa. They are therefore regarded as a serious public-health problem, as they cause malabsorption, malnutrition and blood loss, leading to anaemia or even death. In addition to their health effects, parasitic infections cause physical and mental impairment in children, retard their educational achievements and hinder economic development.

Keywords: Prevalence, Parasitic diseases, Intestinal parasite, Food-borne, Water-borne, Pathogens, Post-war, Iraq