الفهرس 
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Abstract
Diarrhoeal disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children in developing countries. The aetiology of diarrhoea includes a wide array of viruses, bacteria, fungi, helminths and protozoa. It is essential to study the relative role of the possible aetiologic organisms. This is for better understanding of the epidemiology of diarrhoea in the community, target intervention and to propose specific measures. Protozoal causes of diarrhoea are, common in pediatric patients. Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium species are commonly implicated protozoa. E. histolytica infection is less common in children than in adults. The highest prevalence of intestinal protozoa occurs in developing countries where they, are ,responsible, for: a substantial burden of disease, lack of sanitarion, shortage of clean drinking water, poor standards of public and personal hygiene and inadequate health education serve to promote the spread of these directly transmitted parasites. Intestinal protozoa have been linked to impaired nutritional status of the host. They have a detrimental effect on’ the health and nutrition of children which occurs through reduction in appetite, digestion and absorption, in addition to increase of the nutrient losses’:’However, cause and effect are often difficult to distinguish as malnutrition itself predisposes individuals to greater risk of infection through decreasing the efficiency of the immune system. The present work was perfonned to study the role of intestinal protozoa in the OCCUITence of diaIThoea among preschool children and to identify the relation between intestinal protozoal infections and the nutritional status of these children. Two hundred dian-hoeic children were the subject of this study. Their ages ranged from one to less than six years. They were selected from those attending the outpatient clinic of a rural hospital in Abiss (8) village. Mothers were interviewed to collect demographic, socioeconomic and clinical information. Temperature, degree of dehydration, weight and height (or length) were recorded for each child. The nutritional status of children was assessed using the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population and expressed in tenns of Z scores weight for age, height for age and weight for height. Cut c ”c off points of -2 SD were used to identify malnourished children. The degree of malnutrition was determined using Gomez classification based on weight for age percentage from the median. A single fresh stool sample was obtained from each Cc child and examined using the following methods: I. Merthiolate formalin direct smear. 2. Merthiolate iodine fOrmalin concentration technique, where three drops were examined from the sediment of each stool sample. 3. Trichrome staining of methanol fixed smears. 4. Modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining technique. Tile results obtained are summarized in the following: . Out of 200 diarrhoeic children, 111 were infected with pathogenic intestinal protozoa, 23.4 of those infected harboured more than one type of protozoa.