The characteristics of men who have sex with men with <i>Blastocystis</i> : A systematic review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objective Blastocystis is an enteric parasite which can cause gastrointestinal symptoms and may be sexually transmissible in men who have sex with men (MSM). This review aimed to explore the characteristics of MSM with Blastocystis . Method Five bibliographical databases (CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, EMCARE, Cochrane-central) were searched for manuscripts which explored the characteristics of MSM with Blastocystis written in English, French or Spanish in October 2024. Following the initial search, duplicates were removed, and two authors independently conducted a full text review and risk of bias assessment using the Joanna Briggs Institute toolkits. Narrative data were synthesised to generate themes. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO(ID:CRD42024582946). Results Fourteen manuscripts were included in this review; from Australia ( n = 2), Spain ( n = 2), Denmark ( n = 2), USA ( n = 2), UK( n = 1), Italy ( n = 1), France ( n = 1), Germany ( n = 1), Canada ( n = 1) & China ( n = 1) published between 1988 and 2022. The manuscripts were case-reports ( n = 2), case-series ( n = 1) and cross-sectional studies ( n = 11) and included 693 MSM who tested positive for Blastocystis. The majority of MSM in this review were living with HIV which either represents a biological, a behavioural (surrogate) characteristic or a confounding association. This review also highlighted demographic (being asymptomatic), behavioural (multiple sexual partners, recent (tropical) travel, oral-anal sex) and infection (co-infection with STI [ N . gonorrhoeae, C . trachomatis ], co-infection with other sexually transmissible enteric pathogens [ Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp. , E.coli, E . histolytica, G . duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp.], co-infection with intestinal spirochaetosis , co-infection with a non-pathogenic enteric parasite) characteristics of MSM who tested positive for Blastocystis. Conclusion This review serves as a resource for future public health control strategies, clinical guidelines and research to understand the sexual transmissibility of Blastocystis in MSM.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.007 | 0.041 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.007 | 0.006 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.009 | 0.011 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".