Brief account of the disease caused, mode of infection, transmission of

Giardia.
Disease caused: Giardiasis

Mode of infection: By ingestion of cysts (infective form)—with food and drink man is infected
and this infection causes watery diar-rhoea and malabsorption.

Giardia lamblia (also known as G. intestinalis) lives as a flagellate parasite in the small intestine
of man. It causes a disease called giardiasis which causes digestive disturbances. Heavy infection
interferes with normal absorption as the flagellates adhere to the mucosa.

Giardia presents both trophic and cystic forms. Trophozoite. The trophozoites measure 9-20
micra by 6-20 micra. The pro-toplasm of the oval body is clear. The body is flattened dorso-
ventrally. The dorsal surface is convex.

A bean-shaped sucking disc is present on the ventral surface of the broad or anterior end. Two
flagella emerge from the posterior end while three other pairs of flagella extend from the lateral
and anterolateral surfaces. There are two nuclei with prominent nucleoli. The axostyles are
paired.

Two parabasal bodies, sometimes fused, lie close to the axostyle and in the posterior third of the
body. Cyst. The cysts measure 8-14 micron by 6-10 micron. The cysts contain 4-16 nuclei,
axostyles, parabasal bodies and fibril.

The trophozoites transform to cysts and reproduction within the cyst occurs by binary fission.

Structure of Flagellate: Flagellate occurs in two different forms:

1. Trophozoite or feeding stage and

2. Cystic stage.

1. Trophozoite or Feeding stage: It possesses a bilateral symmetrical body with organelles

occur-ring in pairs and measures 10-18 μm length. The body of trophozoite is a ‘tear-drop shaped’
with a convex dorsal surface and a concave ventral one.

This concave ventral surface is provided with two depressions, sometimes called adhesive discs
which make contact with the intestinal cells of the host. A single or double median body is found
just below the adhesive discs. Flagella occur in four pairs (anterior pair, posterior pair, ventral
pair and caudal pair). Two nuclei occur at the broader end of the body.

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There are double sets of nuclei and kinetosomes (axostyles). Each nucleus has been shown to
contain a haploid number of chromo-somes. No structures identifiable as mitochondria, smooth
endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi-complex have been identified in this stage

2. Cystic stage: The fully formed cyst is oval in shape and measures 12 μm long by 7 μm broad.
The cyst wall is thin and the organism does not fill the entire cyst. There are four nuclei which
may remain clustered at one end or lie in pairs at opposite poles. The remains of the disintegrated
flagella forming a central ‘streak’ visible in iodine and the margins of the sucking disc may be seen
inside the cytoplasm.

Life History of Flagellate: In the trophozoite stage Giardia undergoes multiplication in the upper
part of the intestine by binary fission. When conditions in duodenum are unfavourable,
encystment takes place, usually in the large intestine. An acid envi-ronment often causes the
parasite to encyst. During encystment, a tough resistant wall is formed by the parasite and the
cell undergoes division to produce two cells within the cyst.

Infection in man is occurred by ingestion of cysts within about 30 minutes of ingestion, the cyst
hatches out two trophozoites in the host’s intestine which then multiply in enormous number
and are colonised or confined in the small intestine, parti-cularly the duodenum. Giardia often
invades the bile ducts to avoid the high acidity of duodenum.

Symptoms:
1. The symptoms of giardiasis appear 7 to 10 days after ingestion of the cysts.
2. They include severe, foul-smelling diarrhoea; nausea; abdominal cramps; gas; fatigue;
and weight loss in the presence of a normal appetite and normal food intake.
3. There is usually no fever and no blood in the diarrhoea; faeces are usually formed, not
watery, and are mixed with mucus.
4. The symptoms usually last about 2 weeks but may last as long 2 months or even as long
as a year.
5. Some cases are fatal. In young animals, growth may be retarded.
6. Some people are exposed to giardiasis more than others.
7. They include people who work with animals, those living in crowded living conditions with
poor sanitation, people who work in child care facilities, young children in child care
facilities, people exposed to human faeces by sexual contact, people who travel to
developing countries, and people who spend time in the wilderness and drink untreated
water from streams or lakes.

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References:
1. K.D. Chatterjee – Parasitology: Protozoology and Helminthology, CBS, 2009.
2. Mathews G. – Integrated Vector Management: Controlling Vectors of Malaria and Other Insect
Vector Borne Diseases, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

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