PENTATRICHOMONAS 



intestinal disturbances have been reported in which no 

 causative organisms could be discovered except tricho- 

 monads. Most of the individuals, however, who are in- 

 fected with intestinal trichomonads never exhibit symp- 

 toms of any kind. A study was made by Tsuchiya ( 1925) 

 of 20 persons in whom T. hominis was abundant and 10 

 persons who had a mild infection. Examinations of the 

 feces, urine and blood and studies of the gastro-intestinal, 

 nervous, nutritional and circulatory symptoms led him 

 to the conclusion that this species is not pathogenic. We 

 cannot conclude from this, however, that the flagellates 

 are not pathogenic in some instances since their hosts 

 may be carriers such as we are familiar with in the case 

 of certain pathogenic bacteria and other protozoa. 



Pentatrichomonas. Another argument in favor of the 

 pathogenicity of trichomonads is the frequent association 

 of pentatrichomonads with diarrheic conditions and the 

 habit of these five-flagellated organisms of ingesting red 

 blood cells. Derrieu and Raynaud (1914) first reported 

 this type in dysentery cases in Algiers ; Chatter jee ( 1915, 

 191 7) found it in 30 cases of chronic dysentery in Ben- 

 gal; Wenyon and O'Connor (1917) cite one case in the 

 Near East; Haughwout and de Leon (19 19) found it in 

 a case of acute dysentery in Manila; and Kofoid and 

 Swezy (1923) describe it from three patients with his- 

 tories of chronic diarrhea, all of whom had lived in the 

 tropics or had come into close contact with persons who 

 had. Up to this time this five-flagellated type had been 

 found only in hosts who had diarrhea or dysentery. The 

 presence of an organism under conditions of pathogen- 

 icity and the ingestion of red blood cells by it, is not 



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