Intestinal protozoa.

Giardia is the best known cause of protozoal gastrointestinal disease in North America, producing significant but not life-threatening gastrointestinal distress and diarrhea. Although diagnosis of giardiasis may be challenging, treatment is usually successful. Entamoeba histolytica poses a rarer but far more difficult clinical challenge. Dysentery caused by E. histolytica may be the most feared intestinal protozoal infection, although Cryptosporidium parvum, Balantidium coli, Isospora belli, Sarcocystis species and other newly described protozoa also may cause diarrhea in healthy individuals and may result in intractable, life-threatening illness in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or other immunosuppressive diseases. Certain protozoa once considered relatively unimportant, such as Cryptosporidium, are now recognized as significant causes of morbidity even in the United States, since transmission readily occurs through contaminated water.