Fig. 1

Taenia saginata tapeworm diagnosed from Palestinian patients. A A complete tapeworm strobila of T. saginata discharged out of the body and isolated from the stool sample of a 22 year old male patient 2 (P-2). B Taenia ova diagnosed after examination of stool samples in wet smear preparations (100 × magnification). C Amplification of the COX-1 mitochondrial gene (band size 491 bp); P-1 and P-2 are amplified samples from patient 1 and patient 2, respectively, − ve is a negative control and Ladder is 100 bp DNA size marker. D Cross-section of a proglottid discharged from a patient and picked up from his stool sample, stained with hematoxylin and eosin and shows the thick outer tegument and the loose parenchyma filling the body with numerous calcareous corpuscles (black arrows). E Taenia proglottids discharged in stool samples of patients