532 https://oamjms.eu/index.php/mjms/index Scientifc Foundation SPIROSKI, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences. 2021 Jul 22; 9(A):532-534. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2021.6622 eISSN: 1857-9655 Category: A - Basic Sciences Section: Microbiology Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Relation to COVID-19 in Baghdad City Israa Abd Al-Khaliq 1 * , Ibrahim Mahdi 2 , Abdullateef Nasser 3 1 Department of Microbiology, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq; 2 Department of Microbiology, PCR Lab, Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq; 3 Department of Microbiology, Consultant Clinic Laboratory, Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq Abstract BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is resulted from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which initiated in China in December 2019. Parasites are efcient immune modulators because their ability to stimulate an immune response in infected persons. AIM: This study aims to detect if there is a probable relationship between intestinal parasitic infections and COVID-19. METHODS: Ninety patients consulted at Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital (Al-Shifa center) from October 2020 till April 2021, confrmed infection with COVID-19 by PCR. Stool examination was done for detecting intestinal parasites. RESULTS: From 90 patients, males were 63 (70%), with median age 32 years, while females were 27 (30%), with age 24–44 years. Asymptomatic patients were 8.1 (9%), patients with moderate symptoms 22.5 (25%) cases, while the rest were 59.4 (66%) cases who required enter to the intensive care unit, with symptoms including cough (80%), dyspnea (74%), fever (56%), headache (43%), chest pain (37%), sore throat (35%), myalgia (32%), diarrhea (27%), and hemoptysis (3%). CONCLUSION: There is inverse relationship between parasitic infection and COVID-19 infections, and it is signifcant to understand the action between parasites and microbiome, also its function in COVID-19 pathogenicity. Edited by: Slavica Hristomanova-Mitkovska Citation: Al-Khaliq IMA, Mahdi IM, Nasser AJ. Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Relation to COVID-19 in Baghdad City. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2021 Jul 22; 9(A):532- 534. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2021.6622 Keywords: Parasites; Protozoa; Metazoan; COVID-19 *Correspondence: Israa Mohammad Abd Al-Khaliq, Department of Microbiology, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq. E-mail: israaa2007@gmail.com Received: 12-Jun-2021 Revised: 30-Jun-2021 Accepted: 12-Jul-2021 Copyright: © 2021 Israa Mohammad Abd Al-Khaliq, Ibrahim Mahmood Mahdi, Abdullateef Jabbar Nasser Funding: This research did not receive any fnancial support Competing Interest: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists Open Access: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) Introduction There were more than 177 million cases recorded and 38 million deaths till May 2021 [1]. Serious cases, COVID-19 can be complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiac injury, sepsis, kidney infection, and also multiorgan failure [2]. Elder also underlying comorbidities as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac diseases were documented as factors increase the severity of this virus and death [3]. Parasites are efcient immune modulators because their ability to stimulate an immune response in the persons infected by making a balance between responses of pro-infammatory and responses of anti- infammatory [4]. Parasites infect about 2 billion persons over the world [5]. Metazoan parasites such as Schistosoma, Ascaris, and Enterobius, as well as protozoa such as Giardia, Entamoeba, and Cryptosporidium are the main parasites [6]. Chronic parasitic infections, through host’s immune response modulation, proved to change other infections related clinical outcomes [7]. Previous parasitic infections could also modulate host immune reaction to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by harmful or useful efects [8]. Recent researches proved counteractive relationship between occurrences of this viral disease some parasitic infections [9]. The aim of this study was to detect if there is a probable relationship between intestinal parasitic infections and COVID-19. Materials and Methods Study design and participants Ninety patients confrmed diagnoses with COVID-19 were consulted at Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital (Al-Shifa center) from October 2020 till April 2021. All patients in this study were from Baghdad, diagnosed according to the WHO procedure [10]. Data collection Clinical and laboratory data were collected in questionnaire; COVID-19 patients’ data were reviewed.