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• Medical Parasitology aims to provide BS Medical Laboratory Science students with a comprehensive understanding of parasitology, ensuring they are well-prepared for clinical practice and research in the field.
• Terminal learning competencies in Medical Parasitology include identifying and classifying parasites based on their morphology, life cycle, and mode of transmission.
• Differentiating between protozoa and helminths is a crucial aspect of Medical Parasitology, with major examples highlighted within each category.
• Identifying common arthropod vectors responsible for transmitting parasitic infections is a laboratory technique in Medical Parasitology.
• Understanding the life cycles of major human parasites, emphasizing the stages of development and host interactions, is a key aspect of Medical Parasitology.
• Analyzing the factors influencing the transmission of parasitic infections and their epidemiological significance is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• Describing the clinical manifestations associated with common parasitic infections and explaining the pathogenesis of parasitic diseases, including the host-parasite relationship and the immune response, are crucial aspects of Medical Parasitology.
• Evaluating pharmacological treatments for various parasitic infections, considering drug mechanisms of action and potential side effects, is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• People can become infected, but the level of virus in their blood does not become high enough to pass on the infection to mosquitoes that bite them.
• Humans are dead-end hosts for the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), whose life cycle is normally between culicine mosquitoes and birds.
• Lizards act as paratenic hosts for Spirocera lupi in dogs.
• The role of such a host is to fill up an ecological gap between the intermediate host and the definitive host.
• If a suitable definitive host ingests the paratenic host or a part of it containing the infective stage, the parasite can grow to maturity otherwise it remains stored in the host itself.
• Incidental or Accidental host: A host organism that shelters the parasite, but since it can’t progress the life cycle development, it is a dead-end for it.
• Culicine mosquito is the definitive host for the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV).
• Paratenic host harbors the sexually immature parasite, but it cannot develop further in this host.
• Paratenic or Storage Host: A host that serves as a temporary refuge and vehicle for reaching an obligatory host, usually the definitive host.
• Discussing preventive measures and control strategies for parasitic diseases, including public health interventions, is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• Implementing quality assurance measures in the laboratory to ensure accurate and reliable parasitological results is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• E.coli produces vitamins (K and B) and bacteriocins (a chemical that wards off harmful bacteria) and the large intestine provides shelter and nutrients for its growth and multiplication.
• Competition is a negative interaction between a large and a small species or similar species for same resources, where the stronger one excludes the smaller or weaker one from living space or deprives it of food.
• Commensalism is a type of symbiotic relationship where one partner benefits whereas the second partner, the host, are neither helped nor harmed.
• Parasitism is a non-mutual symbiotic relationship in which one of the symbionts, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host, while the host is harmed.
• Mutualism can be classified as obligate mutualism, where both symbionts entirely depend on each other for survival, and facultative mutualism, where mutualism benefits an organism, but the organism is not so dependent on mutualism that it cannot survive without it.
• Amensalism is a type of relationship in which one species is inhibited or completely harmed and the other is not affected.
• Adhering to safety protocols when handling infectious materials, emphasizing the importance of biosafety in the laboratory, is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• Ectoparasites inhabit the surface of the body of the host without penetrating into the tissues, serve as important vectors transmitting the pathogenic microbes, and the infection produced by these parasites is infestation.
• Parasite is a living organism, which lives in or upon another organism (host) and derives nutrients directly from it, without giving any benefit to the host.
• Endoparasites live within the body of the host, invasion by the endoparasite is called as infection, and the endoparasites are of following types: Obligate parasite, Facultative parasite, Accidental parasite, and Aberrant parasite or wandering parasite.
• Reservoir Host is a host, which harbors the parasites, possibly grow, and multiply and serves as an important source of infection to other susceptible hosts.
• Parasites can be classified as Ectoparasites and Endoparasites.
• Reservoir hosts do not get the disease carried by the pathogen or it is asymptomatic and non-lethal.
• Medical Parasitology is the study of animal parasites, which infect and produce diseases in human beings.
• Host (in the context of infectious disease) is an organism or animal which harbors the parasite (another organism or animal) and provides nourishment and shelter to it, and is always larger than the parasite.
• Definitive or Primary Host is a host which harbors the adult parasites or where the parasite replicates sexually, and can be a mammalian host or other living hosts.
• Intermediate or Secondary Host is a host which harbors the larval stages of a parasite or in which the parasite undergoes asexual multiplication.
• Analyzing case studies involving parasitic infections, applying knowledge to diagnose and recommend appropriate treatment, is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• Developing problem-solving skills related to challenging diagnostic scenarios and emerging parasitic threats is a part of Medical Parasitology.
• Various mechanisms by which the parasites evade the host immune responses include: Molecular mimicry, Antigenic variation, and Evasion of phagocytosis.
• Antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) is important for killing of the helminths.