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How Are Parasitic Infections Diagnosed?

How Are Parasitic Infections Diagnosed? (0:55)

Parasitic infections are diagnosed using a stool collection kit, and advances in the way samples are gathered have improved the accuracy of these test results. Watch integrative medicine expert Tasneem Bhatia, MD, describe the latest testing methods.

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This has been so challenging for us as physicians because parasitic infections traditionally have been diagnosed using a conventional stool over parasite collection kit. The problem with these kits they are considered the gold standard, but we often get negative results, in fact I don't think I've ever seen a positive result on this test.

The good news however, is that we have some great innovative testing that uses different technologies to really get a comprehensive stool analysis. So it looks for parasites, it looks for yeast, it looks for how you absorb fat in your body, and it looks for the amount of bacteria in you body, so you get this huge profile of what's really happening in your stool.

This test is usually done by a company called Geneuva, they have two different tests, one is Manumatrix and one is CDFA. Now other companies too that can be helpful in finding parasites for example, a company called PCI, specializes in parasite testing.