THE MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION OF GIARDIA LAMBLIA IN GHANAIAN CHILDREN

ABSTRACT

Diarrhoea is among the six major diseases that causes death among children below age five worldwide. It is also a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children below age five in Ghana. Giardia lamblia is among the major enteropathogen causes of diarrhoea in Ghana. Most studies in Ghana on detecting G. lamblia use microscopy and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. There is not much data on the molecular epidemiology of Giardiasis in Ghana. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and genotype(s) of Giardia lamblia among children up to five years of age with diarrhoea at the Princess Marie Louise Hospital. Stool samples were collected and transported on ice to the Parasitology Department of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for analysis. In the laboratory, the presence or absence of G. lamblia and its genotype was analyzed using a nested polymerase chain reaction, restriction fragment length polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing. Demographic and clinical data was also obtained from the hospital. The associations between demographic, clinical and genotype present was assessed by χ2 significance set at