clinical features

Last edited 09/2018

clinical features

Ingestion of oocysts, which contain the infective stage of parasites life cycle, results in the disease

  • symptoms are usually present two to ten days (average seven days) after becoming infected with the parasite

  • patients presents with gastroenteritis like syndrome
    • small bowel is affected mainly with malabsorption and some elements of inflammation
    • profuse, usually non-bloody, and watery diarrhoea is usually associated with
      • abdominal cramps (in 96% of patients who present for consultation)
      • vomiting (65%)
      • mild fever (59%)
      • loss of appetite
      • weight loss
    • mean duration of symptoms is around 12.7 days, but in some patients may persist up to a month
    • persistent infection may result in relapse of symptoms in over a third of cases

  • patients who are immunocompromised commonly experience chronic or intractable disease
    • entire gastrointestinal tract can be affected, including the pancreatic duct and gall bladder (1).

Several long term effects of Cryptosporidium infection have been reported:

  • in C. hominis - joint pain, eye pain, headaches, and fatigue during the two months after infection
  • seronegative reactive arthritis - both in adults and in children (including one report of Reiter's syndrome)
  • relapse of inflammatory bowel disease (1).

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