LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Giardia: Infections
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What has made Giardia testing infinitely easier is the development of a commercial ELISA test kit (similar in format to home pregnancy test kits). A fecal sample is tested immunologically for Giardia proteins. This method has dramatically improved the ability to detect Giardia infections and the test can be completed in just a few minutes while the owner waits.
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An interesting article recently describes Giardia as being "the only common primary infection causing chronic malabsorption", and "Giardia is perhaps the most common cause of chronic malabsorption in North America". It ... says that a Giardia infection causes a "celiac-like syndrome".
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Existing drugs can effectively treat people with Giardia infections, the disease known as giardiasis, but most infections resolve on their own. When trophozoites detach from the intestinal wall, they may swim and reattach to new intestinal cells, or they may pass down the digestive tract and into the bowels, transform back into cysts and be passed through the stools.
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All individuals are susceptible to infection with Giardia. However, the bug is more prevalent in children than in adults, possibly because many individuals seem to have a lasting immunity after infection. The bug is ... commonly seen in homosexual and HIV infected men possibly secondary to sexual transmission.
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