Prevalence of Parasitic Infections in a Tertiary Hospital in China: A 12-Year Retrospective Study

Abstract BackgroundParasitic infections represent a worldwide public health issue in many developing countries. Few epidemiological studies regarding parasitic infections and the evolution of infection spectrum in China have been reported up to date. It is necessary to investigate the epidemiological feature of parasitic infection during recent years.MethodsThree hundred and thirty-six cases of parasitic infections were retrospectively enrolled and analyzed. Electronic medical records of the enrolled parasitic patients from January 1, 2010 to May 31, 2021 were retrieved from the Electronic Medical Record System of a tertiary hospital in China. Demographic characteristics and data of laboratory tests were exported in Excel and analysis were performed using Graphpad Prism 5.ResultsOverall, seventeen species of parasites were detected in 336 admissions with a total number of infected individuals reached the peak in 2018. Moreover, the regions of patients distributed mainly included: Shanghai (40.48%), Zhejiang (18.45%), Anhui (6.85%), Jiangsu (6.25%) and Jiangxi (4.76%). Two hundred and eighty-eight cases were diagnosed with single species of parasitic infection and 47 cases were found mixed species infection. Foodborne parasites (FBPs) were the primary species of parasites and the top 4 were clonorchis sinensis (24.70%), sparganum mansoni (16.07%), paragonimus westermani (20.83%) and cysticercus (17.86%). Obvious eosinophil elevation was found in 56.54% enrolled patients. Patients with periods of infection before the time of diagnosis lasted longer than 6 months includes four parasites: sparganum mansoni (28.30%, 15/53), paragonimus westermani (38.57%, 27/70), cysticercus (25.00%, 15/60).ConclusionsOur study demonstrated the prevalence of parasitic infection over the latest 12 years in a single center of China. The trend of parasitic infection rate reached the peak in 2018 with the dominating parasitic species changed from soil origin to foodborne. Furthermore, with the emergence of various dietary habits and the development of living conditions, unclean diets especially eating raw meat had become the main route of transmission for parasites, which alarmed that food safety education for public should be strengthened and enlarged. Although eosinophil elevation and IgE is reliable indicators for initiating screening of parasitic infection but enough for diagnosis, novel diagnostic kits for parasites should be devepoled.