Blastocystis sp. is currently the most common eukaryotic parasite found in humans. Despite its potential public health impact, epidemiological data regarding its prevalence and molecular subtype (ST) distribution in Maghreb are rarely reported. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the parasite in a cohort of healthy food handler Tunisian individuals and to acquire...

Chronic renal insufficiency disease (CRI) leads to uremia in hemodialysis patients and induces a state of immunodepression that results in higher frequencies of infections and diarrhea. Hemodialysis patients resident in the city of Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil were analyzed from April 2006 through September 2007 for Blastocystis sp. and other intestinal parasites and for associated diarrhea. Fe...

The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases 2009;13(1):1. Copyright© 2009 by The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Contexto Publishing. All rights reserved. I have read with interest the paper by Kulik et al. published in the fourth issue of 2008 regarding Blastocystis sp. infection in patients with chronic renal disease undergoing hemodialysis [1]. Blastocystis had long been disreg...

Background and Objective: Blastocystis sp. is an anaerobic, single-celled intestinal parasite with global prevalence that is found in the lower digestive tract of humans and many animals, such as numerous types of vertebrates. To date, 17 genotypes have been identified. Nine of these genotypes are common in humans. Organism is found in both healthy and compromised individuals, hence its pathoge...

We tested 513 stool samples from patients in Sydney, Australia for Blastocystis by using five diagnostic techniques: microscopy of a permanently stained smear using a modified iron-hematoxylin stain, two xenic culture systems (a modified Boeck and Drbohlav's medium and tryptone, yeast extract, glucose, methionine-9 medium), and two published conventional polymerase chain reaction methods specif...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and risk factors among military personnel and military dogs at the Military Dog Center, Veterinary and Remount Department, Royal Thai Army, Thailand. MATERIAL AND METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2006 to examine intestinal parasitic infections using wet preparation and, formalin-ethyl acetate conce...

BACKGROUND Blastocystis sp. are among the most commonly observed intestinal parasites in routine clinical parasitology. Blastocystis in humans consists of at least 9 genetic subtypes. Different subtypes of Blastocystis may be associated with differences in pathogenicity and symptomatology. METHODS Advanced microscopy on two samples and sequence-confirmed PCR on a third sample from the same in...

Blastocystis spp. are the most prevalent eukaryotic microbes found in the intestinal tract of humans. Here we present an in-depth investigation of lateral gene transfer (LGT) in the genome of Blastocystis sp. subtype 1. Using rigorous phylogeny-based methods and strict validation criteria, we show that ∼2.5% of the genes of this organism were recently acquired by LGT. We identify LGTs both from...

The role and function of the granular life cycle stage in Blastocystis sp, remains uncertain despite suggestions being made that the granules are metabolic, reproductive and lipid in nature. This present study aims to understand granular formation by triggering apoptosis in Blastocystis sp. by treating them with metronidazole (MTZ). Blastocystis sp.cultures of 4 sub-types namely 1, 2, 3 and 5 w...

BACKGROUND Blastocystis is one of the most common parasites, reported from both human and animals. This parasite is more prevalent in regions with low levels of hygiene, close contact with animal and unsuitable disposal systems. The aim of the study was to subtype Blastocystis sp., isolated from diarrheic and non-diarrheic patients using sequencing of 18S ribosomal DNA. METHODS Totally, 300 s...