Carriage of Blastocystis spp. in travellers - A prospective longitudinal study.
Travel Med Infect Dis
; 27: 87-91, 2019.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29929001
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
A lack of prospective and longitudinal data on pre- and post-travel carriage of Blastocystis spp. complicates interpretation of a positive test post-travel. Therefore we studied dynamics of Blastocystis carriage in a cohort of Dutch travellers.METHODS:
From the prospective, multicentre COMBAT study among 2001 Dutch travellers, a subset of 491 travellers was selected based on travel destination to 7 subregions (70 or 71 travellers each). Faecal samples taken directly before and after travel were screened for Blastocystis with qPCR, followed, when positive, by sequence analysis to determine subtypes.RESULTS:
After exclusion of 12 samples with missing samples or inhibited qPCR-reactions, stool samples of 479 travellers were analysed. Before travel, 174 of them (36.3%) carried Blastocystis and in most of these, the same subtype was persistently carried. However, in 48/174 of those travellers (27.6%; CI95 20.8-36.6%) no Blastocystis or a different subtype was detected in the post-travel sample, indicating loss of Blastocystis during travel. Only 26 (5.4%; CI95 3.7%-8.0%) of all travellers acquired Blastocystis, including two individuals that were already positive for Blastocystis before travel but acquired a different subtype during travel.DISCUSSION:
This study shows that Blastocystis carriage in travellers is highly dynamic. The observed acquisition and loss of Blastocystis could either be travel-related or reflect the natural course of Blastocystis carriage. We demonstrate that the majority of Blastocystis detected in post-travel samples were already carried before travel.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Viagem
/
Portador Sadio
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Infecções por Blastocystis
/
Fezes
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Aged
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Aged80
/
Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
País como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article