Cyclosporiasis Research Paper

Infectious Disease
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection that affects the bowels. People can become infected by consuming water or food contaminated with the parasite. It takes around seven days to begin showing symptoms, like nausea and diarrhea. People living or traveling in countries with tropical or subtropical regions of the world may be at greater risk of contracting the disease. Parasitologist, Dr. Ashford, discovered three cases in Papua New Guinea. He published a book and it went unnoticed for about ten years until the first documented outbreak in the United States in 1990. The finished morphology was completed in 1994 and the species name Cyclospora cayetanensis came from the research university Cayetano Heredia University

in Peru.
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic parasite that causes Cyclosporiasis. Cyclospora cayetanensis concludes its life cycle in humans when one ingests infective Cyclospora oocysts. However, the oocysts lost in the feces of an infected person must grow outside the host to become infective for someone else. Direct person-to-person transmission of Cyclospora is improbable. The incubation process can take anywhere from 2-14 days. It can be hard to diagnose Cyclosporiasis because many illnesses can cause similar symptoms. If doctors suspect a patient has this disease, they may order tests to examine patients' stool for signs of the parasite.
The treatment most commonly used is a combination of two antibiotics, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.

No effective alternative antibiotic has been recognized yet for patients who are non-responsive to the standard treatment or have a sulfa allergy. People who have diarrhea should rest, eat dry foods, and drink plenty of fluids with electrolytes. Avoiding food or water that may have been contaminated with excrement is the best way to prevent Cyclosporiasis. Treatment with chlorine or iodine is unlikely to kill Cyclospora oocysts. A vaccine for cyclosporiasis is currently unavailable.
The time between becoming infected and becoming sick is about 1 week. Cyclospora infects the small intestine and usually causes diarrhea, with frequent bowel movements. Other usual symptoms include loss of appetite, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, nausea, weight loss and fatigue. Vomiting, fever, headache, body aches, and indications like the flu may be noted. Some infected had no symptoms at all
On September 14, 2015 Center for Disease Control and Prevention were notified of 546 infected people with the confirmed Cyclospora infection from 31 states. There were no deaths but 21 victims were hospitalized with severe symptoms. Between 2000 and 2014 only 31 multiple cases were reported which totaled 1,962 infected people in the United States between those dates. Cyclosporiasis is usually not serious but life-threatening complications include

dehydration.
The first published report of Cyclosporiasis in humans was in 1979. Ashford described organisms causing diarrhea in a woman and two young children in Papua New Guinea and came to the conclusion that they could be a coccidian of Isospora. Then, in the early 1990’s, Long and collaborators described blue-green algae as the causing agent of severe diarrhea in eight international travelers who had been to Mexico, India, South America, or Southeast Asia and also in people living in Nepal. The spherical bodies observed did not have organelles with membranes, but the authors described structures similar to chloroplasts.
Cyclosporiasis may not be a deadly disease but it certainly is not pleasant to endure. Not many people have experienced Cyclosporiasis and down to the extreme stomach cramping and diarrhea it's not something to miss out. Personally, I have never experienced this type of intestinal disease so I don’t know what position those who were infected were put in.

Bibliography

"Deaths from Cyclosporiasis." - RightDiagnosis.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

"General Information." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016

"American Society for MicrobiologyClinical Microbiology Reviews." Update on Cyclospora Cayetanensis, a Food-Borne and Waterborne Parasite. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

"WebMD Health Search." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

"Department of Health." Cyclospora Infection (Cyclosporiasis). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.