Blastocystis Hominis in Santa Clara County

On September 11, 2007, my third child, a healthy, little girl contracted Blastocystis Hominis, living here in the Bay Area. My daughter presented with sudden onset of rectal bleeding. She had not traveled out of the country, so doctors suggested a colonoscopy. From the colonoscopy results, the pediatric GI concluded my daughter had colitis, an inflamed colon, which can be caused by many things, not all of which are chronic.

Both the pediatrician and the pediatric GI failed to follow up on the fifth of five stool samples, showing Charcot Leyden Crystals in my daughter's stools. To be fair, the major laboratory separates stool samples from their lab slips. Per the supervisor, samples are often "lost".

When I tried to obtain my daughter's lab results for a second opinion, I was confronted by California Business and Professions Code 1288. This code prohibits laboratories from giving you your own lab results. In California, lab results are the property of the ordering physician.

While my daughter suffered, I found myself trying to make sense of things. I began researching water sources, FDA "voluntary" recalls, the county and the state's health departments, the CDC and the EPA. I contacted all the government agencies responsible for protecting our health, our food, and our water to no avail.

This blog was created to reach out to others who have been diagnosed with colitis or other inflammatory bowel diseases. My own experience with colitis has proven to me that colitis is a symptom not a cause. Just like bleeding stomach ulcers, once considered chronic, have been determined to be caused by H. Pylori.

If this is the case and there is a pathogenic cause, giving medicine to ulcerative colitis patients to suppress their natural immune system can be very dangerous. It very well may be the contributing factor to all of these surgeries many colitis patients endure at the hands of gastroenterologists that dismiss allergic or parasitic causes.

This forum is for people to discuss their experiences with Blastocystis Hominis and other infections brought on by food-bourne or water-bourne pathogens. I'm especially interested in people who have not traveled out of the county, yet have still contracted parasitic infections living here in the Bay Area of California.

While Blastocystis can be contracted by eating or drinking contaminated water or via recreational or pool swimming (chlorination doesn't kill these parasites), I believe my daughter ingested her parasite while eating leafy greens grown in Salinas Valley.

Check out the recalls each summer via the following links: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/shopping_blog/2009/07/salinas-company-issues-romaine-lettuce-recall.html
http://www.examiner.com/x-15150-Danbury-Food-Examiner~y2009m7d24-News-Break-Romaine-Lettuce-Recall-Expanded
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2545658&page=1
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2009/09/18/salmonella-leads-to-spinach-recall-from-canadian-u-s-stores.aspx
http://cbs5.com/local/salmonella.spinach.recall.2.1192997.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20514868/

The Santa Clara Public Health Department says they may be able to devote resources to an investigation of Blastocystis if I can provide them with more victims of this parasitic infection. Regardless of how your contracted your parasite (food, water, swimming), please share your stories, so they can be forwarded on to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. If you'd prefer, please contact Dr. Sara Cody at Santa Clara County's Public Health Department, Disease Prevention and Control at 408-885-4214 or email her at sara.cody@hhs.co.santa-clara.ca.us and let your thoughts be known.