TY - JOUR
T1 - Carriage of Blastocystis spp. in travellers - A prospective longitudinal study
AU - COMBAT consortium
AU - van Hattem, Jarne M.
AU - Arcilla, Maris S.
AU - Schultsz, Constance
AU - Bootsma, Martin C.
AU - Verhaar, Nienke
AU - Rebers, Sjoerd P.
AU - Goorhuis, Abraham
AU - Grobusch, Martin P.
AU - Penders, John
AU - de Jong, Menno D.
AU - van Gool, Tom
AU - Bart, Aldert
AU - van Genderen, Perry J.
AU - Melles, Damian C.
AU - Molhoek, Nicky
AU - Oude Lashof, Astrid M.
AU - Stobberingh, Ellen E.
AU - Verbrugh, Henri A.
AU - van Genderen, Perry J.
AU - Melles, Damian C.
AU - Molhoek, Nicky
AU - Oude Lashof, Astrid M.
AU - Stobberingh, Ellen E.
AU - Verbrugh, Henri A.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85049317503&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29929001
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2018.06.005
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2018.06.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 29929001
SN - 1477-8939
VL - 27
SP - 87
EP - 91
JO - Travel medicine and infectious disease
JF - Travel medicine and infectious disease
IS - Jan-Feb
ER -