Introduction to Parasitology

• Anton Van Leeuwenhoek - the first scientist to introduce the single-lens microscope
• Louis Pasteur - He first published a scientific study on a protozoal disease leading to its control and prevention during investigation of a epidemic silkworm disease.
• Patrick Manson - founded the field of tropical medicine
• Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran - He discovered the malarial parasite.
• Ronald Ross - He showed the transmission of malarial parasites by mosquitoes.
• Rudolf Virchow - He introduced the word “zoonosis”.
• PARASITOLOGY - is the area of biology concerned with the phenomenon of dependence of one living organism on another.
• MEDICAL PARASITOLOGY - concerned primarily with parasites of humans and their medical significance, as well as their importance in human communities.
• TROPICAL MEDICINE - is a branch of medicine that deals with tropical diseases and other special medical problems of tropical regions.
• TROPICAL DISEASE - is an illness, which is indigenous to or endemic in a tropical area but may also occur in sporadic or epidemic proportions in areas that are not tropical.
• ANTHROPONOSIS - Parasitic infection is found in MAN alone.
• ZOOANTHROPONOSIS - Parasitic infections mainly affect man
• ANTHROPOZOONOSIS - Parasitic infection is mainly in animal, may be acquired by man.
• PARASITE - are living organisms, which depend on a living host for their nourishment and survival.
• PARASITE - They multiply or undergo development in the host
• ECTOPARASITE - a parasite living outside the body of a host.
• ENDOPARASITE - a parasite living inside the body of a host.
• OBLIGATE PARASITE - these need a host at some stage of their life cycle to complete development and to propagate their species.
• FACULTATIVE PARASITE - may exist in a freeliving state or may become parasitic when the need arises.
• ERRATIC PARASITE - it is found in an organ which is not its usual habitat.
• ACCIDENTAL PARASITE - which the parasite is not usually found.
• TEMPORARY PARASITE - lives on the host only for a short period of time.
• PERMANENT PARASITE - remains on or in the body of the host for its entire life.
• SPURIOUS PARASITE - free-living organism that passes through the digestive tract without infecting the host.
• PSEUDOPARASITE - Mistaken as parasite.
• HYPERPARASITE - Parasite that parasitizes another parasite.
• HOST - defined as an organism, which harbors the parasite and provides nourishment and shelter to the latter and is relatively larger than the parasite.
• DEFINITIVE HOSTS - is one in which the parasite attains sexual maturity and adult stage.
• INTERMEDIATE HOSTS - harbors the asexual or larval stage of the parasite.
• PARATENIC HOSTS - the parasite does not develop further to later stages.
• RESERVOIR HOSTS - allow parasite’s life cycle to continue and become an additional source of infection.
• ACCIDENTAL HOSTS - which the parasite is not usually found.
• SYMBIOSIS - is the living together of unlike organisms. It may also involve protection or other advantages to one or both organisms.
• COMMENSALISM - in which two species live together and one species benefits from the relationship without harming or benefiting the other.
• MUTUALISM - in which two organisms mutually benefit from each other.
• PARASITISM - where one organism, the parasite, lives in or on another, depending on the latter for its survival and usually at the expense of the host.
• INCUBATION PERIOD - Is the period between infection and evidence of symptoms.
• PRE-PATENT PERIOD - is the period between infection or acquisition of the parasite and evidence or demonstration of infection.
• AUTOINFECTION - results when an infected individual becomes his own direct source of infection.
• SUPERINFECTION - happens when the already infected individual is further infected with the same species leading to massive infection with the parasite.