Kathmandu, June 26: A new parasite known as Cyclospora Cayentenensis are being found in the stool of patients suffering from gastro-enteritis and stomach ailments at the beginning of the rainy season this year also.

According to parasite researcher Dr. Jeevan Bahadur Sherchan who has been undertaking research on the parasite since 1995, a number of persons have been falling because of the parasite especially in summer.

But the number of patients dying from the parasite could not be ascertained, he told.

The deaths during the rainy season in the past were due not only to gastro-enteritis and cholera. Patients suffering from this parasite were given wrong treatment, he says.

Dr. Sherchan, who is director of the Infectious and Tropical Disease Control and Research Centre, has been carrying out research on the parasite in association with Prof. John Cross, Researcher from Uniformed Services at the University of Health Sciences, USA and the TU Institute of Medical Science, Public Health Research Laboratory.

The parasite was found in 1,260 out of 3,433 patients suffering from gastro-enteritis and other stomach ailments during stool tests over the last five years.

The parasite was found in 285 out of 910 stool tests as of the first week of Asar this year.

The parasite has also been found in cabbage, beet-root, mice and local chicken in the course of research on commodities and animals carried out during the last five years.

More research on the transfer of the parasite and remedial measures is being carried out, Dr Sherchan says.

Stool samples have also been sent to research laboratories in the USA and Thailand for further research.

About 11,000 thousand persons are killed by the parasite every year in the USA.