RT Book, Section
A1 Ortega-Barria, Eduardo
A1 Dominguez, Elidia
A2 Rudolph, Colin D.
A2 Rudolph, Abraham M.
A2 Lister, George E.
A2 First, Lewis R.
A2 Gershon, Anne A.
SR Print(0)
ID 7031520
T1 Chapter 343. Balantidiasis
T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 22e
YR 2011
FD 2011
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-149723-7
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=7031520
RD 2024/04/19
AB Balantidium  coli  is  the  largest  protozoan  parasite  and  the  only  ciliate  known  to  cause  infection  in  humans.  B.  coli  is  a  zoonosis  and  has  been  found  in  pigs,  rodents,  cattle,  reptiles,  birds,  fishes,  annelids,  arthropods,  and  many  simian  hosts.  Pigs  are  typically  the  source  of  human  infections,  although  species-to-species  transmission  requires  adaptation  of  the  parasite.  The  host’s  health  can  be  a  factor,  since  individuals  who  are  malnourished  or  suffering  from  concurrent  infections  are  at  greater  risk  of  developing  balantidiasis.  Once  a  porcine  strain  becomes  established  in  the  human  intestine,  the  infection  may  spread  from  human-to-human,  and  this  may  account  for  the  occasional  reported  epidemics.