Investigation of the Association between COVID 19 Infection, Gastrointestinal Manifestations, Parasitic Diseases and Antiparasitic Treatment: An Electronic Data Compilation

Background: COVID 19 pandemic has posed great challenges to national and international health organizations. This health burden is exaggerated in middle and low-income countries, due to the endemicity of parasitic diseases. Pre-existing parasitic infections and antiparasite drug therapy may modify the host's immune response to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and can attenuate the severity of disease presentation. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was done to investigate the possible association between COVID-19 syndrome, gastrointestinal manifestations, parasitic diseases and antiparasitic treatment. A non-probability convenient sampling technique was used to recruit participants, through electronic data collection. Results: The mean age of the survey respondents reporting a positive history of COVID 19 infection was 35.69±12.24 years. Study participants with a positive COVID 19 history have reported a positive history of gastrointestinal disorders in 40.9% of 93 patients responding to that question. Twenty-six out of 95 (27.4%) participants reporting a positive history of COVID 19 also reported a previous history of parasitic infection, while 22 (15.6%) subjects out of 141 individuals with a negative history of COVID 19 infection had a past experience of parasitic infection (P=0.028) Among the parasitic infections stated was amoebiasis, giardiasis and enterobiasis. Conclusions: The higher incidence recorded of parasitic infections among subjects with a positive history of COVID-19 suggests that parasite co-infection 3 may lead predispose to a high incidence of COVID-19, which conflicts with other literature data reporting a protective effect of parasitosis against SARS CoV-2 infection. More extensive survey studies targeting larger populations are of crucial importance, especially in developing countries.