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Microsporidiosis

What is microsporidiosis?

Microsporidiosis is a disease that is due to infection with microscopic organisms called microsporidia. These are small simple single-celled (protozoan) parasites that form spores. These parasites must live within other cells and are found in the intestine, liver, kidney, cornea, brain, nerves, and muscles. These spores spread to other cells or are eliminated in the stool or urine.

Microsporidia have not been studied very thoroughly as agents of disease, partly because they are quite small. They are difficult to diagnose without the aid of an electron microscope, a piece of equipment that is not in a routine diagnostic microbiology laboratory. A number of animals, including insects, birds, and mammals, can serve as reservoirs of infection for microsporidia.

How are microsporidia transmitted?

The microsporidia spores are released from the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts of infected animals. The spores are then consumed by people. Within the bowels, a spore unfolds a long, thin, coiled tube that is used to penetrate a cell. Once within the cell, the microsporidia develop and multiply.

What conditions does infection with microsporidia cause?

Although microsporidia can infect people with normal immune systems, they typically do not develop symptoms. Symptoms of microsporidiosis generally occur in people with immune deficiency. Microsporidiosis is a cause of bowel, lung, kidney, brain, sinus and eye disease in people with AIDS and other conditions that are caused by immune deficiency.

Intestinal symptoms that are caused by microsporidia infection include wasting, chronic diarrhea, and gallbladder disease. The diarrheal stools are typically watery and are not accompanied by blood in the stool or by fever.

Lung symptoms include a cough and difficult, labored breathing. A chest X-ray may show signs of inflammation, fluid, or cavities in the lungs.

Infection with microsporidia can cause blood in the urine, kidney failure, bladder inflammation, and bowel perforation. Microsporidia can also spread throughout the body to cause inflammation in the brain, pancreas, gallbladder, sinuses, and ears. Microsporidia have even been seen in muscle tissue.

Two types of microsporidial eye infection occur in patients with AIDS. The first type is infection of the cornea following an eye injury, which may result in corneal perforation and blindness. (This condition is rarely seen in persons with normal immune systems.) The second type involves inflammation of the cornea and the conjunctiva of the eye (keratoconjunctivitis) in patients with AIDS.



Next: How is microsporidiosis diagnosed? »



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