ReviewClinical microbiology reviews2008
Current world status of Balantidium coli.
Review in Clinical microbiology reviews, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 339 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of gastrointestinal parasites inFrontiers in parasitology · 2026Pooled it
- Gut protozoa of wild rodents - a meta-analysis.Parasitology · 2024Pooled it
- Development of a multilocus sequence typing tool forJournal of clinical microbiology · 2026Article
- Molecular evidence of host specificity in Buxtonella-like ciliates in mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) and related primates.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Silent shedding of zoonotic enteric protozoa in domestic pigs for human consumption in selected farms in the Iberian Peninsula.Veterinary research communications · 2026Article
- Infectious Diarrhea in Early Childhood across the Global South: Etiologic Diversity and Pathogenic Mechanisms.ACS infectious diseases · 2026Review
- Optimizing Balantioides coli in vitro maintenance: effects of temperature and lipid supplementation in modified Pavlova medium.BMC veterinary research · 2026Article
- One health approach to Balantioides coli: Molecular and metabarcoding evidence of zoonotic transmission.PloS one · 2026Article
- Protist community sites and structure under two barn management systems at a commercial dairy.Frontiers in microbiomes · 2026Article
- Evolution and ecology of commensal gut protists: recent advances.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2025Review
- Zoonotic Parasites in Marmosets (Callithrix Spp.) From Southern Brazil: Insights From a One Health Perspective.Journal of medical primatology · 2025Article
- Prevalence and molecular characterisation of Balantioides coli in pigs raised in Italy.Parasitology research · 2025Article
- Diversity of the Amoebozoa and Ciliophora Groups in Non-Human Primates Kept Ex Situ and in Their Handlers in Different Institutions in Brazil.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Modes and mechanisms for the inheritance of mitochondria and plastids in pathogenic protists.PLoS pathogens · 2025Review
- Article
- Investigation of the Occurrence of Zoonotic Intestinal Parasites along the Karmanasa River Bank in Lalitpur, Nepal.Veterinary medicine and science · 2025Article
- Gastrointestinal Parasites With Their Risk Factors in Tharu Indigenous People in Southern Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- The Phylogenetic Characterization ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Symbionts of Ciliates and Ciliates as Symbionts.Indian journal of microbiology · 2024Review
- Trade-offs between sociality and gastrointestinal parasite infection in the context of a natural disaster.Animal behaviour · 2024Article
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Balantidium coli is a cosmopolitan parasitic-opportunistic pathogen that can be found throughout the world. Pigs are its reservoir hosts, and humans become infected through direct or indirect contact with pigs. In rural areas and in some developing countries where pig and human fecal matter contaminates the water supply, there is a greater likelihood that balantidiosis may develop in humans. The infection may be subclinical in humans, as it mostly is in pigs, or may develop as a fulminant infection with bloody and mucus-containing diarrhea; this can lead to perforation of the colon. The disease responds to treatment with tetracycline or metronidazole. Balantidiosis is a disease that need never exist given access to clean water and a public health infrastructure that monitors the water supply and tracks infections. Its spread can be limited by sanitary measures and personal hygiene, but it is a disease that will be around as long as there are pigs. Immunocompromised individuals have developed balantidiosis without any direct contact with pigs, perhaps with rats or contaminated produce as a possible source of infection. For the clinician, balanatidiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis for persistent diarrhea in travelers to or from Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific islands, rural South America, or communities where close contact with domestic swine occurs. Warming of the earth's surface may provide a more favorable environment, even in the now-temperate areas of the world, for survival of trophic and cystic stages of Balantidium, and its prevalence may increase. Effective sanitation and uncontaminated water are the most useful weapons against infection. Fortunately, balantidiosis responds to antimicrobial therapy, and there have been no reports of resistance to the drugs of choice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.