Waterborne parasites: a current status from the Philippines

Abstract

Background: Despite the amount of awareness created, waterborne disease still poses threat, especially in developing countries. Due to the scarcity of reported data on waterborne parasites, the consumption of unsafe water prolongs. Thus, the occurrences of waterborne parasites from various samples were investigated from one of the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines.

Methods: A total of thirty three samples, each consisting of twelve liters, were collected and processed to obtain the sediment. Ten liters of sample each was processed to detect Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. using an immunomagnetic separation method prior to enumeration via fluorescence microscope. Meanwhile, the remaining two liters were cultured to detect Acanthamoeba and Naegleria through microscopy examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.

Results: Twelve samples (36.4%) from river (5), swimming pool (1), pond (3), rain tank (1), and natural lake (2) were positive for Cryptosporidium spp., 17 (45.5%) samples from river (9), pond (2), swimming pool (1), rain tank (1), and natural lake (4) were positive for Giardia spp. while, 13 (33.3%) samples from river (3), swimming pool (2), pond (2), dispenser (1), well (1), tap (2) and natural lake (2) were positive for Acanthamoeba spp. and 5 (18.2%) samples from river (1), natural lake (1), tap (1), dispenser (1) and mineral (1) were Naegleria spp. positive. Physical parameters such as temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solid (TDS), salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and turbidity and chemical parameters such as ammonia, chlorine, fluoride, nitrate and nitrite were also measured. The highest chemical contamination was observed at pond 2. A good correlation was observed between Giardia and nitrite (r = 0.736, p < 0.01) and Giardia and nitrate (r = 0.502, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: This study was aimed to create greater awareness of parasitic contamination in the water environment in the Philippines and also to act as a platform of the current scenario for policymakers as water pollution is a key health issue in this region.

Figure 1

Study areas involved in the detection of waterborne parasites from the Philippines.