Coccidios intestinales en ni？os menores de 5 a？os con diarrea: Emergencia pediátrica, Hospital Universitario ？Ruiz y Páez？

a study was carried out between august and october 2006 with the purpose of determining the prevalence of intestinal coccidia in children under 5 years of age with diarrhea who attended the pediatric emergency service of the ？ruiz paez？ university hospital. a fecal sample obtained from each patient was submitted to the following tests: direct examination, formaldehyde-ether and kinyoun staining. a total of 130 fecal samples obtained from the same number of patients were examined; 60 of the patients were girls (46.2%) and 70 were boys (53.8%), with a mean age of 2 ± 1.4 years. a general prevalence of 38.5% (50/130) intestinal parasites was found. the intestinal coccidia prevalence was 12.3%, and cryptosporidium spp. was the most frequent parasite with 10 cases (7.7%), followed by cyclospora cayetanensis with six cases (4.6%). there were no differences regarding gender (p>0.05) and age (χ2 = 7.41; g.l. = 5) of children with coccidia. coccidia alone were identified in 11 cases, while in other 5 cases the coccidia were associated with other enteroparasites. it was concluded that the prevalence of intestinal coccidia in children with acute diarrhea attending the pediatric emergency service of the ？ruiz paez？ university hospital was relatively high (10.9%) and that cryptosporidium was the most frequent coccidia identified