Local researcher says health officials resist findings

Parasites. Say the word, and conversation usually stops. It’s not something that 12-year-old Jordan Selker is eager to talk about, although he knows about it from painful experience. And after years of watching him suffering with intestinal problems, general lethargy and depression, Selker’s mom, Laurie Childers, was desperate to know what was wrong with her son.

She experimented with food changes to see if his ailments were caused by food allergies. She tried homeopathic cures using natural products. It was a stroke of luck that may have provided the answer: Her neighbor’s husband is a researcher into a little-known one-cell parasite called Blastocystis hominis.

Located within the intestinal walls, the parasite sheds from the feces of an infected host. Improper post-toilet hygiene is a common way the infection is spread via oral-fecal contact. And the researcher, Ken Boorom, thinks the tiny parasite may be responsible for a distinct, persistent gastro-intestinal ailment.

Boorom has spent years researching Blastocystis hominis. He is the founder of the Blastocystis Research Foundation in Corvallis and has joined researchers from Oregon State University and the United States Air Force Medical Center to investigate the parasite. They’ve confirmed nine cases of blastocystis infection in the Corvallis area out of 21 patients who complained of similar intestinal issues as well as pain, rashes and fatigue.

This particular form of blastocystis didn’t really appear on the scene in the United States until the 1990s — about the time that Gulf War veterans began coming home complaining of a recurring gastro-intestinal illness. Frequent world travelers to Mexico and South America also have brought back the parasite.

Boorom has continuously met with resistance from the Oregon Department of Human Services as well as national agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control.

The state sent the state public health veterinarian, Dr. Emilio deBess, to testify in front of the legislative Health Policy Committee in Salem in 2007, after Rep. Sarah Gelser introduced a house bill that would have made blastocystis a reportable disease by the Department of Human Services. DeBess dismissed claims that there was direct evidence the parasite caused disease.

But despite local lack of interest, Boorom has been in contact with researchers across the world, including military researchers with the Air Force, because many blastocystis infections appear to be directly related to service overseas. Right now, researchers are working on developing both a blood test for the parasite, as well as adequate treatment.

“The tough thing for us is treating it,” Boorom said. “For many patients, there is not a cure.”

Even preventing the disease is problematic, he said, warning that well water is more prone to contain blastocystis. He urges people who rely on wells for their drinking water to install a filter that is certified to remove protozoal cysts such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

Boorom would like to see a vaccine developed to combat the parasite. He said one possibility is that Americans are more susceptible to the parasite now than they would have been 50 years ago because they are less exposed to infection, and thus don’t have the chance to build up immunities to infection.

When Laurie Childers had Jordon tested for blastocystis, the test proved positive. At that point, it wasn’t easy to figure out a treatment approach, as traditional courses of antibiotics aren’t always effective. Also, Childers had always avoided giving her children any antibiotics.

A combination of sulfa drugs and acupuncture treatments has reduced Jordan’s pain and intestinal symptoms.

“I’m better,” Jordan said. “But I wouldn’t say perfect.”

For more information, see www.bhomcenter.org/