Blastocystis Research Foundation

Blastocystis 'hominis' News

April 27, 2009 - Denmark's Staatens Serum Institute published study on Blastocystis 'hominis' infection in Denmark, identifying association with IBS, and noting presence of inflammatory bowel disease in patients.

March 27, 2009 - Pasteur Institute publishes study on Blastocystis 'hominis' infection in France (BRF co-authored study)

February 26, 2009 - Read BRF's letter in Lancet Infectious Diseases, "Emerging infectious diseases are not always obvious."

February 18, 2009 - Dr. Charles H. Zierdt, 30+ year veteran of the NIH, joins BRF Board of Directors

January 15, 2009 - Notes from Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness meeting, April, 2008. BRF's testimony is noted on page 19 (search for Blastocystis 'hominis').

November 17, 2008 - Corvallis Gazette Times publishes article on impact of long-term Blastocystis 'hominis' infection on local family.

More Items (coming soon)

NOTE: The correct term is now Blastocystis not Blastocystis 'hominis' as there is no Blastocystis unique to humans.

Tink's Space

Following deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1991-1992, many US veterans reported the development of a series of symptoms which have been collectively referred to as "Gulf War Syndrome."

Many first-hand accounts of the symptoms were collected on bulletin boards run by veterans. While many studies have been performed on veterans, these accounts are of interest because they represent first-hand information about veterans experiences.

Tink's space was one bulletin board which collected many of these accounts. It was hosted on Microsoft's group server, groups.msn.com. Microsoft discontinued this service in Feburary 2009, making the accounts unaccessible to the public. Tink's space included approximately 200 megabytes and 5000 files.

At BRF, we believe this is an important historical record, because it contains first-hand accounts from veterans which have not been "filtered" through researchers, some of whom may have biases and may tend to emphasize one symptom group, and de-emphasize other symptoms to support their research hypothesis.

BRF archived the web site prior to the MSN groups shutdown. We have made this site available in its original form as a sub-directory on BRF's web site. Some images may not be accesssible, for example if they represented links outside of the MSN group which have since been discontinued.

Go to Tink's Space