{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T20:05:33Z","timestamp":1791576333442,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Diarrhea remains the second largest killer of children worldwide, and Nigeria ranks number two on the list of global deaths attributable to diarrhea. Meanwhile, prevalence studies on potentially diarrheagenic protozoa in asymptomatic carriers using molecular detection methods remain scarce in sub-Saharan countries. To overcome sensitivity issues related to microscopic detection and identification of cysts in stool concentrates, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to analyze genomic DNAs extracted from stool samples from 199 healthy school children for <jats:italic>Entamoeba histolytica<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>E. dispar<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Giardia intestinalis<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Cryptosporidium<\/jats:italic>. Questionnaires were administered for epidemiological data collection. <jats:italic>E. histolytica<\/jats:italic> was not detected in any of the samples, whereas <jats:italic>Giardia<\/jats:italic> (37.2%), <jats:italic>E. dispar<\/jats:italic> (18.6%), and <jats:italic>Cryptosporidium<\/jats:italic> (1%) were found. Most of the children sourced their drinking water from community wells (91%), while the majority disposed of feces in the bush (81.9%). Our study is the first to use real-time PCR to evaluate the epidemiology of <jats:italic>E. histolytica<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Giardia<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Cryptosporidium<\/jats:italic> in Nigeria where previous studies using traditional diagnostic techniques have suggested higher and lower carriage rates of <jats:italic>E. histolytica<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Giardia<\/jats:italic>, respectively. It is also the first study to accurately identify the prevalence of common potentially diarrheagenic protozoa in asymptomatic carriers in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4269\/ajtmh.14-0781","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,23]],"date-time":"2015-06-23T02:00:42Z","timestamp":1435024842000},"page":"257-262","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Molecular Detection of the Carriage Rate of Four Intestinal Protozoa with Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction: Possible Overdiagnosis of Entamoeba histolytica in Nigeria"],"prefix":"10.4269","volume":"93","author":[{"given":"Michael A.","family":"Efunshile","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bethrand A. F.","family":"Ngwu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"J\u00f8rgen A. L.","family":"Kurtzhals","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sumrin","family":"Sahar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brigitte","family":"K\u00f6nig","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christen R.","family":"Stensvold","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2795","reference":[{"key":"ref1","series-title":"Lancet","first-page":"2151","article-title":"Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality: an updated systematic analysis for 2010 with time trends since 2000","volume":"379","author":"Liu","year":"2012"},{"key":"ref2","series-title":"Diarrhoea: Why Children are Still Dying and What Can Be Done","author":"UNICEF, WHO","year":"2009"},{"key":"ref3","series-title":"Acta Paediatr","first-page":"e452","article-title":"Changing trend of persistent diarrhoea in young children over two decades: observations from a large diarrheal disease hospital in Bangladesh","volume":"101","author":"Das","year":"2012"},{"key":"ref4","series-title":"Ending Preventable Child Deaths from Pneumonia and Diarrhea by 2025. 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