BLOOD AND TISSUE PROTOZOA

• Acanthamoeba usually causes infection in immunocompromised patients. It is a free living amoeba that causes inflammation of the brain substance and its meningeal coverings(meningoencephalitis)
• Granulomatous amebic encephalitis – infection occurs primarily in immunocompromised individuals. The parasite produces this brain

  abscesses in immunocompromised patients. Symptoms develop slowly and may include headache, seizures, stiff neck, nausea, and vomiting. The brain lesions may contain both the trophozoites and the cysts
• Keratitis – infection of the cornea of the eye. Symptoms include severe eye pain and vision problems. Loss of vision may occur due to perforation of the cornea.
• The laboratory diagnosis for acanthamoeba are Cerebrospinal fluid, Corneal scraping and Calcoflour white stain
• The treatment for acanthamoeba are pentamidine, Ketoconazole, flucytosine
• For acanthamoeba that infects the eye the treatment are miconazole, chlorhexidine, itraconazole, rifampicin and propamidine, and ketoconazole
• Propamidine has the best record for treating acanthamoeba for topical
• Naegleria is found in fresh warm water, and contaminated soil
• Asymptomatic infection – the most common clinical presentation in patients with colonization of the nasal passages in naegleria
• Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis – the result of colonization of the brain by the amoeboid trophozoites leading to rapid tissue destruction. Patients initially complain of sore throat, nausea, vomiting, fever, and headache
• the treatment for naegleria are Amphotericin B together with rifampicin and miconazole
• Ways to avoid naegleria are hot tubs and chlorination of pools
• The vector female sandfly of the Phlebotomus

  and Lutzomyia
• The three morphologic forms of the Hemoflagellates Leishmania spp are amastigote, promastigote, and epimastigote
• The infective stage of Hemoflagellates is promastigote
• The pathogenic stage and diagnostic form of Hemoflagellates Leishmania is the amastigote which is found primarily in tissue and muscle, as well as the central nervous system
• There are three major strains of Leishmania are L. braziliensis, L. tropica, and L. donovani
• The vector of trypanasoma spp is triatomid bug
• Chagas disease is the disease caused by trypanasoma cruzi
• L. Donovani treatment amphotericin B, sodium stibogluconate
• Allopurinol is the treatment for trypanasoma cruzi
• The causative agent of African sleep disease is T. gabiense and T. rhodesiense
• T. gambiense T. rhodesiense vector is tsetse fly or glossina
• melarsoprol, suramin, pentamidine, and eflornithine is the treatment for african sleeping disease caused by T. rhodesiense and T. gabiense
• Anopheles mosquito is the vector of plasmodium spp
• The infective stage is the sporozoite and Merozoites pathogenic stage of plasmodium spp
• oocysts is the infective form of toxoplasma gondii
• The trophozoites of Toxoplasma gondii is tachyzoites and bradyzoites
• Clindamycin, sulfadiazine, pyrimethamine is the treatment for toxoplasmosis