Blastocystosis and Urticaria: An Overview from a Syndemic Perspective

Abstract

Numerous studies have found an association between infection by some species of intestinal parasites and the development of urticarial lesions. In this document we have commented on the published findings that show the association between infection by Blastocystis spp. and urticaria, and on the theorizations in relation to the mechanisms that would explain it. Due to sharing risk factors and transmission ways, there is a marked geographic coincidence among intestinal parasitic infections. In fact, polyparasitism is a common phenomenon in low- and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean where infections by protozoa and intestinal helminths are endemic. This argument, among others, suggest that the epidemiological and healthcare approach to urticaria associated with infection by Blastocystis spp. should be done from a syndemic approach that takes into account the ways in which social environments contribute to intestinal parasite infections clustering, the pathways through which those infections could interact biologically in each individual influencing the development and evolution of urticarial lesions, and the ways in which those interactions complicate diagnosis and treatment.