Intestinal   protozoa  and   helminths  are  aetiological  agents of several

   widespread   parasitic   diseases. The   most common ones are Entamoeba

   histolytica , Giardia lamblia and Ascaris lumbricoides. The main purposes  of 

   this study were determination the frequency of intestinal parasites,and study

   the  clinical  symptoms   of  patients  and  also  to  indicate  the  correlation

   between symptoms and  parasitic infection  and the kind of parasites.

         Two hundreds and twenty seven patients were examined  by physicians

   and  directed to parasitology  laboratory  for  stool   examination  by  direct

   method   and   formol - ether  (concentration method ). The   demographic

   characteristic and the gasterointestinal symptoms of patients were provided

   through questionaire.

         Frequency  of   parasitic   helminths and protozoa were 20.2% and 22.9%

    respectively. However 42.6%  of  the patients were infected by at least one

    pathogenic parasites . The most infected cases had G.lamblia (19.3%),and

   the most common  symptom  was  abdomen  pain  and  the  least one was

   vomiting. In  the  Ascaris  infected  cases, the  most common symptom was

   vomiting (57.1%) and  in  the  Giardia  infected   cases, the   most  common

   symptom was abdomen pain (64.7%). Ascaris  and Giardia had the highest

   prevalence among the  studied  patients.

         The   prevalence   of  pathogenic intestinal parasites in study group who

   had   gastrointestinal symptoms was high (42.6%). The main symptoms were

   the   same   as  those   usually   observed  in patients infected with intestinal

   parasites. Some   of   non-pathogenic   diseases   may   also   cause   similar

   symptoms.