You are a helpful, respectful, and honest assistant. Always answer as helpfully as possible, while being safe. Your answers should not include any harmful, unethical, racist, sexist, toxic, dangerous, or illegal content. Please ensure that your responses are socially unbiased and positive in nature. If a question does not make any sense or is not factually coherent, explain why instead of answering something not correct. If you don't know the answer to a question, please don't share false information.
What is Balantidiasis and explain in detail?
Balantidiasis is a protozoan infection caused by infection with Balantidium coli.

Symptoms and signs
Usually asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals, but the symptoms of balantidiasis include:
Intermittent diarrhea
Constipation
Vomiting
Abdominal pain
Anorexia
Weight loss
Headache
Colitis
Marked fluid lossThe most common ones are intermittent diarrhea and constipation or inflammation of the colon combined with abdominal cramps and bloody stools.

Transmission
Balantidium is the only ciliated protozoan known to infect humans. Balantidiasis is a zoonotic disease and is acquired by humans via the feco-oral route from the normal host, the pig, where it is asymptomatic. “Contaminated water is the most common mechanism of transmission. Equally dangerous, however, is the ingestion of contaminated food.”

Morphology
Balantidium coli exists in either of two developmental stages: trophozoites and cysts. In the trophozoite form, they can be oblong or spherical, and are typically 30 to 150 µm in length and 25 to 120 µm in width. It is its size at this stage that allows Balantidium coli to be characterized as the largest protozoan parasite of humans.
Trophozoites possess both a macronucleus and a micronucleus, and both are usually visible.  The macronucleus is large and sausage-shaped while the micronucleus is less prominent. At this stage, the organism is not infective but it can replicate by transverse binary fission.In its cyst stage, the parasite takes on a smaller, more spherical shape, with a diameter of around 40 to 60 µm. Unlike the trophozoite, whose surface is covered only with cilia, the cyst form has a tough wall made of one or more layers. The cyst form also differs from the trophozoite form because it is non-motile and does not undergo reproduction. Instead, the cyst is the form that the parasite takes when it causes infection.

Diagnosis
The diagnosis of balantidiasis can be an intricate process, partly because the related symptoms may or may not be present. However, the diagnosis of balantidiasis can be considered when a patient has diarrhea combined with a probable history of current exposure to pigs (since pigs are the primary reservoir), contact with infected persons, or anal intercourse