Infecções por Balantidum coli em humanos

Abstract

A review on Balantidium coli and human balantidiasis including rare cases of extraintestinal infections are presented in this work. Balantidium is the only ciliated protozoan able to infect and cause illness in human. The usual host of B. coli is pigs, which did not present symptoms. In human the infection may be asymptomatic or cause diarrhea with mucus and blood. Patients with balantidiasis usually present a history of contact with pigs and housing in areas with poor sanitary and hygienic conditions. Extraintestinal location of B. coli s rarely reported and seems to be more common in immunocompromised patients. Extraintestinal infections are recorded in organs as lungs, renal system, peritoneum and cervical spine. In these reports, all patients were treated and showed improvement in the clinical symptoms. Laboratorial diagnosis of intestinal infection is performed by stool examination. Trophozoites are usually visualized in stool by direct examination. The cysts have rarely be found in humans. Imaging methods or biopsies allow the diagnosis of extraintestinal cases. Asymptomatic and symptomatic patients should be treated and the use of antibiotics is efficient to resolve the infection in most cases. Due to the lower occurrence of balantidiasis compared to other parasitic infections, professionals involved in the diagnosis have less familiarity with the parasite morphology, which can hinder identification. Thus, a better understanding of this infection and its causative agent is important to establish preventive measures and for the health professionals to be vigilant to make the correct diagnosis.