How can I get diagnosed for Blastocystis infection?  Your physician can order a generic stool test called an "Ova and Parasite exam."  However, this test uses an older methodology, and more sensitive are needed.  Based on the data we have, the methodology used in the United States (trichrome staining) will detect less than half of infections.  The test used in Europe and some other countries (Formalin Ether Concentration) may detect fewer than 10% of infections.  BRF is working with private companies to get patients access to more reliable testing techniques.

If I have Blastocystis infection, what is the treatment?  There is no FDA-approved treatment for Blastocystis infection.  Quite simply,  nobody has bothered to perform any reasonable laboratory investigation to figure out what to use.  Some studies have suggested that "Flagyl" (metronidazole) is effective.  However, because no reliable diagnostics have been available, it is difficult to determine which treatments are effective at eradicating the infection, and which make patients feel better for a period of time.  BRF is working to develop treatment methodologies based on generally accepted standards for treatments of infectious organisms.

In my family, some of us have developed chronic GI illness, and some are very sick, while others are not so sick.  Why do people show different symptoms?  This has been the $64,000 question for a number of years, and scientists have been asking the same question in many other diseases.  These include cholera, typhoid fever, swine flu, and others.  When completely healthy people are infected, some people become deathly ill, while others don't.  In the last five years, researchers finally figured out why, at least in some cases, people show different symptoms.  There is a great deal of genetic variation in the immune systems of individuals.  This occurs in all animals (humans, mice, pigs, etc.) and this may be by design.  Organisms that cause disease take advantage of weaknesses in the immune systems - for example, some actually manufacture chemicals that resemble the transmitters the body uses to shut off an immune response.  So if every individual in a population had the exact same immune system, a single organism could wipe out the entire species.

By creating a diverse population, this ensures that some members of the population will survive.  It also means that in chronic diseases, certain people will develop chronic infection without symptoms, while others will develop chronic infection with symptoms.

The immune changes that allow some people to escape disease are not always ones you might like.  For example, the disease Cystic Fibrosis is caused by a genetic trait that provides resistance to the disease cholera.  Because of this, Ashkenazi Jews have CF at a high rate, because they are descended from a population that was exposed to cholera a long time ago.  Sickle cell anemia is another genetic disease that is caused by a mutation that was favored because it provided resistance to malaria.

I've been sick for over 15 years with something that nobody can figure out.  Do infections really last this long?  And do the symptoms go away when they are treated?  Yes and Yes.  That's one reason why associating an infectious disease with an illness is a “home run" from a public health standpoint.   The most recent example of this is the treatment of the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach ulcers.  Once scientists discovered that stomach ulcers were being caused by a bacteria (and not by stress), they began treating people who had lifelong problems with ulcers, and they recovered.