Blastocystis hominis
Blas·to·cys·tis hom·i·nis
Blastocystis hominis
A single-celled protozoan parasite isolated from 5–10% of stool specimens in developed countries and up to 50% of specimens in developing countries, especially in those who work with animals.Clinical findings
B hominis was long known to cause gastrointestinal disease in immunocompromised patients—e.g., recurrent diarrhoea, episodic vomiting, abdominal colic; B hominis infection may be misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome.
Nomenclature
Experts have proposed dropping hominis, the species name for Blastocystis sp. subtype nn (where nn is the number of each species group). It is phylogenetically included in the group Stramenopiles, which also includes brown algae, mildew, diatoms and the bacteria that caused the Irish potato famine.