[Preliminary study on infection status and gene types of Cryptosporidium among HIV/AIDS patients in Guangxi].

Objective: To understand the infection status and gene types of Cryptosporidium among HIV/AIDS patients in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Methods: The fecal samples were collected from 285 HIV/AIDS cases in Nanning, Guilin, Qinzhou, Baise, Hechi cities of Guangxi and 150 HIV negative persons in Nanning City. The modified acid-fast staining and nested-PCR based on 18S rRNA were employed to detect the infection status of Cryptosporidium . The nested PCR products were sequenced, and the homology searches and identification for the gene types of Cryptosporidium were done by DNAStar software.
Results: The infection rate of Cryptosporidium in HIV/AIDS patients was 0.70% (2/285), and the rate of those with chronic diarrhea was 6.67% (2/30), the latter was significantly higher than that of the HIV negative persons (0, 0/150) ( P = 0.002). Both the two HIV/AIDS patients infected with Cryptosporidium were from Guilin City. By molecular identification, the Cryptosporidium strains which the above 2 patients were infected with were Cryptosporidium andersoni and Cryptosporidium hominis respectively.
Conclusions: Cryptosporidium co-infection can be found in HIV/AIDS patients in Guangxi. The genotypes of the infection strains include Cryptosporidium andersoni and Cryptosporidium hominis.