Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Parasitology
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• Competition for authority that takes place between the
host and the parasite - host-parasite relationship
2
Introduction to Medical Parasitology
cont.
• Endoparasites
• Intestinal, atrial or they may inhabit body tissues causing
serious health problems
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• Ectoparasites
• Arthropods that either cause diseases, or act as vectors
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• Arthropod vectors
• Sexual contact
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• Direct microscopy - stool, urine, blood, CSF and tissue
biopsies
• Immunodiagnostics - antigen and antibody detection
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Medical Parasitology
• The science dealing with parasites that infect man,
causing disease and misery in most countries of the
tropics
• WHO estimates that one person in every four harbors
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parasitic worms
• Parasitology is a dynamic field because the
relationships between parasites and their hosts are
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Medical Parasitology cont.
• Parasite - a living organism that lives in (endoparasite) or
on (ectoparasite) another organism, obtaining
nourishment and protection while offering no benefit in
return
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• Consequently, the host suffers from various diseases,
infections, and discomforts
• However, in some cases, the host may show no signs at all
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Types of parasites
• According to the nature of the host-parasite interactions
and the environmental factors, there are different types of
parasites
• Obligatory parasite - completely dependent on its host and
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can’t survive without it e.g. hookworms
• Facultative parasite - can change its life style between free-
living in the environment and parasitic according to the
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• Zoonotic parasite - primarily infects animals and is transmittable
to humans. e.g. Fasciola species
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• e.g. Man is DH for Schistosoma haematobium, while female
Anopheles mosquito is DH for Plasmodium species
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• Paratenic or transport host - in whom the parasite does not
undergo any development but remains alive and infective to
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• 3 types of relationships based on whether the symbiont
has beneficial, harmful, or no effects on the other
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tissue destruction by a parasite is balanced with the host’s
tissue repair. At this point the parasite and the host live
harmoniously, i.e. they are at equilibrium
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dependence has evolved to such a degree that one mutual
cannot survive without the other
• Filarial nematodes such Wuchereria bancrofti and Onchocerca
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Types of Symbiotic Association cont.
• Commensalism
• One partner benefits from the association, but the host is
neither helped nor harmed
• May be facultative, in the sense that the commensal may not
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be required to participate in an association to survive
• Humans harbor several species of commensal protozoans,
that colonize in the intestinal tract
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Types of Symbiotic Association cont.
• Parasitism
• One of the participants, the parasite, either
harms or lives at the expense of the host
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• Parasites may cause mechanical injury, such as
boring a hole into the host or digging into its skin
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Life cycle
• Life cycles of parasites
1. Simple/Direct
• Only one host and are described as monoxenous
• Life cycle of Ascaris lumbricoides
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• Generally spends most of its life in or on the host, and may
reproduce within the host
• Because offspring must be transmitted to other hosts,
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• Primary or definitive host of a heteroxenous species
is the one in which adult parasites live and reproduce
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Life cycle cont.
• Some parasites are transmitted directly from one host to
another, often by insects, described as vectors
• One particularly effective vector for vertebrate parasites is
the mosquito, which plays a role in transmission of
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numerous parasites including heartworm, the viruses that
cause yellow fever and encephalitis, and Plasmodium, the
protozoan that causes malaria
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• Embryonated eggs which are present in soil may be
ingested, e.g. roundworm, Whipworm
• Infective larvae present in soil may enter by penetrating
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Sources of Infection cont.
• Water
• Infective forms present in water may be swallowed, e.g.
cysts of Amoeba and Giardia
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• Water containing the intermediate host may be
swallowed, e.g. infection with guinea worm occurs when
the water that is drunk contains its intermediate host
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Sources of Infection cont.
• Food
• Contamination with human or animal feces, e.g. amoebic
cysts. pinworm eggs,
toxoplasma oocysts
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• Meat containing infective larvae, e.g. Trichinella spiralis
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• Tsetseflies - Sleeping sickness
• Reduviid bugs - Chagas’ disease
• Mechanical vectors
• Housefly - Amoebiasis
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Sources of Infection cont.
• Animals
• Domestic
• Cow - beef tapeworm, Sarcocystis
• Pig - pork tapeworm, Trichinella spiralis
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• Dog - hydatid disease, leishmaniasis
• Cat - toxoplasmosis
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Sources of Infection cont.
• Self – Autoinfection
• Finger to mouth transmission, e.g. pinworm
• Internal reinfection, e.g. Strongyloides
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Medica; Parasitology - SBD2114
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Modes of transmission
• Oral Transmission
• The most common method of transmission
• Through contaminated food, water, soiled fingers
• Many intestinal parasites enter the body in this manner, the
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infective stages being
• Cysts - Entamoeba histolytica and other intestinal protozoa
• Embryonated eggs - Whipworm or pinworm
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Modes of transmission cont.
• Skin Transmission
• Hookworm infection is acquired when the larvae enter the
skin of persons walking barefooted on contaminated soil
• Schistosomiasis is acquired when the cercarial larvae in water
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penetrate the skin
• Many parasitic diseases, including malaria and filariasis are
transmitted by blood sucking arthropods through active skin
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Modes of transmission cont.
• Vector Transmission
• Parasites undergo development or multiplication in the
body of true vectors - biological vectors
• Some arthropods may transmit infective parasites
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mechanically or passively without parasitic multiplication
or undergoing development in them
• Ex: housefly may passively carry amoebic cysts from
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Modes of transmission cont.
• Direct transmission
• By person-to-person contact
• Gingival amoebae (Entamoeba gingivalis) - transmission is
direct from one person to another by kissing
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• Trichomoniasis - by sexual intercourse
• Pinworm infection - Inhalation of air-borne eggs
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leading to faecal contamination of the environment
• Lack of health education
• Insufficient water and contaminated water supplies
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immunity, exposure to new infections, and people being
forced to live and work closer to vector habitats and reservoir
hosts, often in overcrowded conditions, e.g. refugee camps
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• Strain of parasite and adaptation to a human host
• Number of parasites (parasite load)
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Parasitic disease cont.
• Host Factors
• Genetic factors
• Age and level of natural immunity
• Intensity and frequency of infection
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• Immune responses to the infection
• Presence of co-existing disease or condition which reduces
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Effects of parasites on host
1. Direct effects of parasite on the host
• Mechanical injury - may be inflicted by a parasite by means of
pressure as it grows larger, e.g. Hydatid cyst causes blockage
of ducts such as blood vessels producing infraction
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• Deleterious effect of toxic substances- in Plasmodium
falciparum production of toxic substances may cause rigors
and other symptoms
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Laboratory diagnosis
• Depending on the nature of the parasitic infections, the
following specimens are selected for laboratory diagnosis
1. Blood
• Development stages circulates in the blood stream
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• Examination of blood film forms one of the main procedures
for specific diagnosis
• For example, in malaria the parasites are found inside the red
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4. Sputum
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Laboratory diagnosis cont.
5. Biopsy material
• Varies with different parasitic infections
• Ex
• Spleen punctures - kala-azar,
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• Muscle biopsy – Cysticercosis and Chagas’ disease
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Indirect evidences
• Changes indicative of intestinal parasitic infections
1. Cytological changes in the blood
• Eosiniphilia often gives an indication of tissue invasion by
helminthes in blood
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• Reduction in white blood cell count is an indication of kala-
azar
• Anemia is a feature of hookworm infestation and malaria
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Treatment
• Many parasitic infections can be cured by specific
chemotherapy
• Greatest advances have been made in the treatment of
protozoan diseases
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• To obtain maximum parasiticidal effect, it is desirable that
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Prevention and Control
• Measures should be taken against every parasite infecting
humans
• Preventive measures designed to break the transmission
cycle are crucial to successful parasitic eradication. Such
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measures include:
• Source reduction
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• Endoparasites are sub-classified into Helminthic parasites
(multicellular organisms) and Protozoan parasites (unicellular
organisms)
41
Classification and general characters
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Medica; Parasitology - SBD2114
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Endoparasites
• Most parasites of humans live inside the host
• These are helminthes, protozoa, or sometimes larval stages
of arthropods
• Both helminthic and protozoan parasites can infect
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different tissues and organs of the human body
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Ectoparasites
• Human ectoparasites live on the host
• Include fleas, lice, mosquitoes, bugs, mites, ticks etc
• In general, ectoparasites attach to the skin to feed and do
not remain on the host for their entire lives
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• Some of these organisms lie in a grey area between
endoparasites and ectoparasites
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Classification of medical parasitology
• Medical Protozoology - Deals with the study of medically
important protozoa
• Medical Helminthology - Deals with the study of
helminthes (worms) that affect man
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• Medical Entomology - Deals with the study of arthropods
which cause or transmit disease to man.
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Classification of medical parasitology
PROTOZOA • Trypanosoma brucei
• Single-celled organisms • Trypanosoma cruzi
• Leishmania donovani
1. Amoebae
• Entamoeba histolytica 5. Coccidia
Blood and tissue
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• Entamoeba hartmani
• Entamoeba coli • Plasmodium species
• Endolimax nana • Toxoplasma gondii
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1. Trematodes (Flukes)
Blood flukes • Trichuris trichiura (whipworm)
• Schistosoma haematobium • Strongyloides stercoralis