0% found this document useful (0 votes)
10 views38 pages

Parasitology Exam Notes Overview

The document provides an overview of parasitic diseases, including definitions of key terms such as parasites, hosts, and vectors, as well as the major types of parasitic diseases like nematodes, cestodes, and protozoa. It discusses control strategies for soil-transmitted helminths and the WHO's roadmap for eradicating neglected tropical diseases, emphasizing the importance of preventive chemotherapy and sanitation. Additionally, it details specific parasites, their life cycles, symptoms, and treatment options, highlighting the global impact of these diseases.

Uploaded by

mlskennam
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
10 views38 pages

Parasitology Exam Notes Overview

The document provides an overview of parasitic diseases, including definitions of key terms such as parasites, hosts, and vectors, as well as the major types of parasitic diseases like nematodes, cestodes, and protozoa. It discusses control strategies for soil-transmitted helminths and the WHO's roadmap for eradicating neglected tropical diseases, emphasizing the importance of preventive chemotherapy and sanitation. Additionally, it details specific parasites, their life cycles, symptoms, and treatment options, highlighting the global impact of these diseases.

Uploaded by

mlskennam
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Microbiology - Parasitology Exam Notes

1. What are Parasitic Diseases?

Host- parasite R/ship

 - Symbiosis ;-living together’ – a close association between two organisms.

a. mutualism – both organisms are benefited (bacteria in bowel)

b. commensalism – one organism is benefited, the other is Unaffected.

c. Parasite;- An organism that is deriving its sustenance from another without giving something in
return .

 Parasitology ;- The science or study of these host-parasite relationships

 Vector;- ‘carrier’ of a parasite from one host to another .


 The host;- The organism that provides food and/or protection
Types of host

a) definitive host – the host in which sexual maturity an reproduction takes place, [Link]

b) intermediate host – the host in which the parasite undergoes essential development. More than
one

intermediate host may be required by some parasites.

Humans sometimes serve as an intermediate host, [Link]

c) reservoir (carrier) host – the host harboring a parasite in nature – serving as a source of infection
for other susceptible hosts.

 Reservoir hosts show no sign or symptom of disease;-

 A number of parasites require more than one host to complete their life cycle

Major Types of Parasitic Diseases

 - Nematodes – intestinal helminths (worms)


 Cestodes – tapeworms

 Trematodes – Schistosomiasis, flukes, etc.

 Intestinal and Luminal Protozoa – Amebiasis, Giardiasis

 Blood Protozoa – Malaria, African sleeping sickness, etc.

 Arthropods &Ticks – Fleas, lice, ticks, etc.

 Eradication, Elimination, and Control


 Eradication;-A permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection

 Elimination (interruption of transmission);- Reduction to zero of the incidence of infection by a


specific pathogen in a defined geographical area.

 Control :- Reduction of disease incidence, prevalence, intensity,morbidity or mortality.

 Continued intervention measured may be required


 Endemic;- Regularly found among particular people or in a certain area

 Main Strategy of the WHO roadmap

 Provide coordinated guidance and technical assistance to governments and health programs to
eradicate, eliminate, or control.

 Encourage coordination between pharmaceutical companies, healthcare agencies,


philanthropists (e. Bill Gates), universities to overcome neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

 - Outcome: a significate reduction in morbidity and transmission so that they are no longer a
public health problem.

1. Nematodes – Intestinal Helminths (worms)

 Nematodes are cylindrical worms, hence the name roundworm

 The mode of transmission varies with the type of worm

 May involve ingestion of eggs or larvae.

 Penetration by larvae
 Bite of vectors

 Ingestion of stages in the meat of intermediate hosts

 Worms are often long-lived

 Morphology described as a tube within a tube – the outer tube contains musculature and inner
tube contains the digestive tract

- Soil-transmitted helminth (worm) infections – Neglected Tropical

Disease

o Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm) (NTD) – infects >1 billion

people

o Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) (NTD) – infects 795 million

o Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanes

(hookworms) (NTD) – infects 740 million

- Other examples of nematodes

o Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm),

o Trichinella spiralis (trichinosis),

o Strongyloides stercoralis (Cochin-china diarrhea),

o Dracunulus medinensis (fiery serpents) (NTD)

WHO Action on Soil-Transmitted Helminths – Control Strategies

- Morbidity to be controlled by delivering preventive chemotherapy

- Elimination and eradication will not be achieved until affected

populations have access to effective sanitation, and sewage

treatment, and disposal

- Treat once or twice a year – pre-school and school-age children

- Adults at high risk in certain occupations (e. tea-pickers, miners..)

- It is considered that ‘deworming school-age children is probably the

most economically efficient public health activity that can be


implemented in any low-income country where soil-transmitted

helminthes are endemic’

- In 2010, 711 million people worldwide received preventive

chemotherapy for at least one neglected tropical disease

WHO’s challenges and goals for prevention of neglected tropical diseases

- Preventive chemotherapy

o The large-scale delivery of single-dose, quality-assured

medicines, either alone or in combination, provided free of

charge and at regular intervals to prevent selected diseases

Innovative and intensified disease management

o Controlling through case management the diseases that are

difficult to diagnose and treat, and which in most cases

trigger severe clinical manifestations and complications

Vector control and pesticide management

o The safe and judicious management of public-health

pesticides to achieve vector control through integrated vector


management

Safe drinking-water, basic sanitation and hygiene services, and

education

o The prioritization of improved sanitation combined with the

delivery of preventive chemotherapy and health education to

sustain reductions in prevalence of many of these diseases

Zoonotic disease management

o The application of veterinary sciences and interventions to

protect and improve human health (also referred to as

veterinary public health)

Roadmap targets: WHO Action on Soil-Transmitted Helminths

- 600 million tablets of albendazole or mebendazole

- By 2015

o 50% of preschool children are regularly treated

o 100% of countries have an action plan

- By 2020

o 75% of preschool and school-aged children are regularly

treated

o 75% coverage of preschool and school-aged children in 100%

countries affected

Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm)

- Background and epidemiology

o A soil-transmitted helminth
MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

 The Americas, Central and Southern Africa, Southern

Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and Pacific Islands

o A. duodenale

 Dominant species in the Mediterranean region and

northern Asia

- Morphology

o Adult – 11mm long

- Characteristics

o Enter through the foot – ‘hookworm foot’

- Life Cycle

o A different strategy for entry into human

o Eggs are released in the stool

o Larvae hatch in soil 1-2 days called rhabditiform

o Undergo two moults in the soil over a period of 51 days and

develop into infective filariform larvae ready to infect

humans

o Survive 3-4 weeks in this form


o Humans become infected when infective flariform larvae

penetrate skin, enter the bloodstream and move to the heart

and lungs, penetrate the alveoli of the lungs ascend to the

throat and are then swallowed

o Develop into adults in the lumen of the small intestine and

attach to the intestinal wall

o Live for 1-2 years

Symptoms

o Major symptoms are from blood loss as the hookworms

damage intestinal mucosa

o Anemia is common

o Loss of iron can retard growth and mental development

Diagnosis and Treatment

o Finding hookworm eggs in feces

o Mebendazole for 3 days is effective

Control

o Sanitation is the chief method of control – avoid contact with

infected fecal material

o Avoid walking barefoot in hookworm-infected areas

o Do not defecate in places other than latrines, toilets

o Do not use human excrement or raw sewage as manure or

fertilizer in agriculture

Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm)

- History
MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

o Known as a parasite of humans since about 1530 BC

o Persian physicians removed D. medinensis from patient

during 9th century

- Hosts

o Definitive: Humans

o Intermediate: Copepod

- Distribution

o As of 2005, Guinea worm disease only occurs in Africa, and

few remote villages in Rajasthan, India and Yemen.

o Only 9 countries are endemic:

 Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso,

Ethiopia, Niger, and Ivory Coast

o >50% of all cases of Guinea worm disease are reported from

southern Sudan

o 3 million cases in the 1980s

- Morphology

o The adult female guinea worms is a long, slender worm ranging from 30-120cm length x 0.09-0
width

o Three mature guinea worms (size)

 Gravid (carrying eggs) female > mature female >

mature male

- Characteristics

o Only helminthic parasite transmitted solely through water

 But usually occurs during drought

 Everyone is forced to drink from the same stagnant


water supplies or pay for a well

o Three conditions to be met before D. medinensis can complete

its life cycle

 The skin of an infected individual must come in

contact with water

 The water must contain the appropriate species of

microcrustacean

 The water must be used for drinking

o Believed that parasites feed on blood due to the gut often

being filled with dark brown gut material

- Vector - Crustacean

Life Cycle

o Humans become infected by drinking unfiltered water

containing copepods (small crustaceans) which are infected

with larvae of D. medinensis

o Following ingestion, the copepods die and release the larvae,

which penetrate the host stomach and intestinal wall and

enter the abdominal cavity and retroperitoneal space

o The worm molts again 20 days and 43 days post infection

o Females are fertilized by the third month

o After maturation into adults and copulation, the male worm


die and the females migrate into the subcutaneous tissues

towards the surface of the skin

o Approx. one year after infection, the female worm induces a

blister on the skin, generally on the distal lower extremity,

which ruptures

o When this lesion comes into contact with water, which the

patient seeks to relieve the local discomfort, the female worm

emerges and releases larvae

o The larvae are ingested by a copepod and after two weeks

(and two molts) have developed into infected larvae


MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

- Examples

o Wuchereria bancrofti and W. (Brugia) malayi (elephantiasis)

o Onchocerca volvulus (Blinding filariasis; river blindness)

o Loa loa (eye worm)

Wuchereria bancrofti (elephantiasis)

- Human pathogen, distributed in tropical areas worldwide

- 40 million people are estimated to be disfigured and incapacitated by

this disease - Infected individuals are generally incapacitated

- One of the major causes of disability worldwide

- Insect vector required for transmission - by mosquitos – making

control difficult

- Adult Filarial worms are around 10cm long

- The adult male and female worms reside in lymphatic where they

mate and produce large numbers of larvae, called microfilariae

- The microfilariae circulate in the blood stream where they can be

picked up by a biting mosquito

- Adult worms can live for many years, continuously producing

microfilariae and contributing to ongoing transmission of the disease

- Acquired by bite of a blackfly – insect-borne parasites are difficult to

control

- Symptoms

o Parasites are lodged in the lymphatic system

o Many people are asymptomatic and there is slow damage to

the lymphatic system


o Causes lymphedema – filarial worms obstruct the lymphatic

system and cause swelling – usually in legs, arms, breasts, and

genitalia

o Can be associated with high fever every 8-10 weeks

o Enlarged lymph nodes and inflammatory response to live and

dead parasites

- Diagnosis

o Presence of microfilaria in blood samples collected at night

- Treatment

o DEC (Diethylcarbamazine) for 14 days kills the adult worms

- Vector – mosquitos

- Life Cycle

o L3 larve form called filariform larvae enter the human body

during a mosquito bite

o They enter through the bite wound and migrate lymphatic

vessels and lymph nodes

o Take ~1 year to mature

o Adult females produce larvae called microfilaria (measuring

~250um)

o Microfilaria move actively in the lymphatic and blood system

o Mosquitos are infected during a blood meal

o 10-14 days traverse mosquito and become infective for man

in the mosquito

-
The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis

(elephantiasis)
MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

o In 2008, 496 million people were treated in a mass drug

administration program

o China and Republic of Korea no longer an endemic problem

o There are 81 countries listed as endemic for lymphatic

filariasis

o 2 billion tablets of DEC have been donated to WHO by Eisai

for 2013-2020

o The drugs are safe and are given to everyone in each area –

this must be repeated for 4-6 years

o WHO estimates if levels of drug therapy are maintained then

elimination can occur in Pacific Islands (not Papua New

Guinea) by 2015

o By 2017, the goal is to have 70% of 81 endemic countries to

have stopped drug therapy and be in a surveillance stage

o By 2020, 100% of all endemic countries will be certified free

from disease

Onchocerca volvulus (Blinding filariasis; river blindness)

- Caused by a Helminth worm


MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

o The scolex (head) contains sucksers and hooks

o Proglottids form the ribbon-like body

o Eggs are produced in each proglottid

o Eggs are released when proglottids are broken down by

digestive enzymes in the host

o Each proglottid is 18x6cm

o Eggs are 35x45 micrometers

o Cestodes can have 3-3000 proglottids

Tenia solium (Pork Tapeworm) & T (Beef Tapeworm)

- Worldwide distribution – highest in developing countries

- As high as 10% in the developing world

- T. saginata are 4-6 meters long

- T. solium are 0 meters long

- Life Cycle

o Transmission occurs with feces contaminated – with eggs

that are eaten by cows or pigs

o Larval cyst called a cystercerci is ingested with poorly cooked

infected meat
o Larvae escape the cyst and pass to small intestine and attach

to the mucosa

o Worm develops over 3-4 months proglottids of the body

develop

o Adult can live in the small intestine for as long as 25 years

o Eggs or proglottids release in stool

Symptoms

o Light infections remain asymptomatic

o Heavier infections – abdominal discomfort, vomiting, and

diarrhea

Diagnosis

o Recovery of eggs or proglottids in stool or from the perianal

area

Treatment

o Praziquantel

Control

o Cysticerci do not survive temperatures <10 degrees C and >50

degrees C

Cysticerosis – neglected tropical disease

- Affecting areas of the world with poor sanitation


MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

- Embryonated eggs ingested by Human

- Ocosperes hatch and circulate

- May develop in any organ including brain and eyes

- Major cause of epilepsy - ~29% of people with epilepsy in some part

of the world have cysticercosis

- Cerebral cysticercosis can be as high as 1 per 1000

- Auto-infection is common – someone with a tapeworm infects

themselves with eggs from their tapeworm

- Number of active Cysticercosis cases with epilepsy/neurological

disorder

o Africa – 0.31-4 million

o India – ~1 million

o Latin America – 0 – 1 million

o Mexico – 144,433

- A clear strategy for controlling this disease worldwide is still in

progress

- Elimination of cysticercosis requires improvements in sanitary

conditions, especially prevention of open defecation

- Chemotherapy for humans, pig husbandry and pig treatment

combined with vaccination using a newly developed recombinant

vaccine

- A validated strategy for the control and elimination of Taenia solium

taeniasis/cysticercosis will be available by 2015; and interventions

for control and elimination scaled up in selected countries in Africa,


Asia, and Latin America by 2020

- Chemotherapy for humans, pig husbandry and pig treatment

combined with vaccination using a newly developed recombinant

vaccine for pigs

Treatment

o Human cysticercosis is difficult to treat

o Long courses with praziquantel and/or albendazole, as well

as supporting therapy with corticosteroids and/or antiepileptic drugs, and possibly surgery

Control

o Wash hands with soap and warm water after using the toilet

and before handling food

o Teach children the important of washing hands to prevent

infection

o Wash and peel all raw vegetables and fruits before eating

o Avoid raw vegetables and fruits that cannot be peeled when

traveling in developing countries

Life Cycle
Trematodes – Flukes
MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

- High risk population categories:

o School age children

 Children between age 6-15

 Swim and play in nearby lakes or irrigation channels

 Spend long hours in the water where their entire

bodies are exposed

o Women

 Carry out household work of collecting water,

washing clothes, utensils etc.

 Particularly important when pregnant

o Fishermen/irrigation workers

 Occupations involving contact with water – more

exposed to infection and should be treated as a highrisk group

- Control Strategies (WHO)

o Over 200 million people require treatment for schistosomiasis

yearly

o In 2012, more than 35 million people were treated for

schistosomiasis – 83% were Sub-Saharan African

o Praziquantel is available free of change to a few high-disease

burden least developed countries (LDC)

o Studies in China and Egypt show that mass treatment in

infected areas without individual diagnosis can give

significant impacts on infection

o Treatment several times during childhood is likely to prevent


disease in adulthood and reduced requirements for

praziquantel

o Even with this generous drug donation – this is not enough to

eliminate the disease

o WHO targets

 By 2015, Schistosomiasis eliminated from Eastern

Med, Caribbean, Indonesia, and Mekong River Basin

 By 2020, selected countries in Africa will have

eliminated Schistosomiasis

Helminths – Social and economic impact of parasitic worm diseases

- Incapacitate people so they are unable to work

- Families and children suffer poverty and malnutrition due to patient

unable to work

- Impairs physical growth

- Children are weak and suffer general malaise

- Education suffers

Modes of Infection

- Contaminative

o Where personal hygiene and community sanitation is lacking.

Cysts or eggs remain infective for long periods in

contaminated soil

- Soil or water-borne

o Difficult to control

o Children eat dirt, which can contain eggs, etc.


o Certain larvae can penetrate skin of bare feet or enter skin in

infested water

o Education and sanitary control of waste is best means of

prevention

- Food-borne

o Inadequately cooked beef, pork, fish, shell fish, and some

vegetables can be sources of infection

- Arthropod-borne

o The most difficult of all to control; often produces disease that

are fatal.

o More commonly found in moist tropical areas of world

o Mosquitoes transmit malaria, etc.

Parasitic damage to host

- Trauma – damage to tissues, intestine, liver, eye

- Lytic action – activity of enzymes elaborated by organism

- Tissue response – localized inflammation, eosinophilia

- Blood loss – heavy infection with hookworm may cause anemia

- Secondary infections – weakened host susceptible to bacterial

infection, etc.
MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

Kinetoplastida Parasites (Protozoan parasite)

- All neglected tropical diseases

o Trypanosoma brucei – Trypanosomiasis (African sleeping

sickness)

o Trypanosoma cruzi – Chagas disease

o Leishmani sp. – Leishmaniasis

- Complex life cycles alternating between a mammalian host and

insect vector

African Sleeping Sickness (Trypanosomiasis) – Trypanosoma brucei

- African trypanosome cell types

o Trypomastigote

o Epimastigote

- Two major forms infect humans

T. brucei rhodesiense

T. brucei gambiense

Insect vector

Glossina moritans

Glossina palpalis

Geographical range

East & Central Africa

West & Southern Africa

Transmission cycle

Ungulate-fly-human
Human-fly-human

Disease progression

Rapid progression to

Slow progression (1

death

year)

Asymptomatic carriers Rare

Common

o Trypanosoma brucei. rhodesiense

 A rapidly progressing disease restricted to the eastern

third of the continent

o Trypanosoma brucei. gambiense

 A slowly developing disease predominant in the

western and central regions of Africa

 Accounts for ~95% of cases

o 100% fatal without treatment, ~10,000 per year die from the

disease

o A WHO neglected tropical disease

Life Cycle
o The infective, metacytic form of the trypanosome is injected

during a bite by the tsetse fly

o The organism transforms into the trypomastigote dividing

bloodstream form

o Trypomastigotes can traverse the walls of blood and lymph

capillaries into the connective tissues

o Can cross the choroid plexus (BBB) into the brain and

cerebrospinal fluid

o The organism can be transmitted through blood transfusion

o Differentiates into a non-dividing ‘stumpy’ form that can

survive in the tsetse fly vector

Sleeping sickness

o Trypanosomes multiply in the tissue around the initial bite

site
MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

Antigenic Variation

o Occurs in viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotic parasites

o Trypanosomes are covered with a dense surface coat

o This is composed of VSG (variable surface glycoprotein)

o Variant specific antisera strongly react with VSG

o Surface coats from different clones are antigenically distinct

Antibodies cannot gain access to other surface molecules

o VSG dimers form a densely packed surface coat

o Other (non-variant) proteins like transferrin receptor or

hexose transporter are hidden in this coat

o Antibodies only raised against VSG

Trypansomes harbor ~1000 different VSG genes


-

o The genomic organization of trypanosomes is complex with

20 chromosomes and 100 mini chromosomes

o 6-10% of the total DNA is coding for VSGs (~1000 genes)

o Many (but not all) VSG genes are present on the 100 mini

chromosomes

o Only one is expressed at a time

o The parasite can switch between VSG variants, drawing

from a very large repertoire of VSG genes (>1500)

VSGs are expressed from telomeric expression sites

o Active VSG genes are found in expression sites

o Genes are read in (~20) expression sites like tapes in a tape

recorder but only one recorder is playing at a time

Life Cycle Stages in Humans have VSG

Introduction to antigen variation

o Acquired Immunity

 Depends on antibody-antigen interaction

o Antigenic Variation

 Exists as a system employed by various

micropathogens to evade acquired immunity and

required the continuous expression of antigenic


MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

variants that have not been encountered by that

host’s immune system

o The African trypanosome, Trypanosoma brucei, a classic

paradigm for parasite antigenic variation

o Vaccines are impossible to produce due to antigenic

variance

Chagas Disease (American trypanosomiasis) – Trypanosoma cruzi

- Single celled protozoan parasite

- Causes American tyrpanosomiasis or Chagas disease

- WHO neglected tropical disease

- Central and South America, stretching from parts of Mexico to

Argentina

- 7-8 million people infected by the parasite, 50 million are at risk

- Endemic in 21 Latin American countries

- About 50,000 people die each year from the disease

- Transmission

o Latin America and South America where the vector is found

o Triatomine bugs live in walls, roofs of homes

o Active at night and bite exposed areas of skins whist humans

are sleeping

o Human migration leading to cases worldwide

o 4 ways

 Food contaminated with triatomine feces


 Blood transfusion from infected donors (blood

screening is necessary to avoid transmission)

 Infection from mother to baby

 Organ transplant

- Life Cycle

Vertebrate host cell invasion and infection persistence

o Flagellated metacyclins enter host cells

o Differentiate into amastigotes once invaded and divides

o Either egress from cells as amastigotes and re-infect local

cells OR differentiate into flagellated trypomastigotes within

host cells then egress and enter the bloodstream

o Triatomine bug hides inside any nucleic ell in the body

Symptoms

o Primary lesion:

 Called a chagoma, appearing at the site of infection

 Usually found on the face, eyelids, cheeks, lips or the

conjunctiva, but may occur on the abdomen or limbs

o Acute stage:

 Appears 7-14 days after infection

 Restlessness, sleeplessness, malaise, increasing


exhaustion, chills, fever, bone and muscle pains

 Death occurs in 5-10% of infants

o Chronic stage:

 Cardiac arrhythmia is common


MICROBIOLGY – Sue V – Parasitology

o Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania tropica

 90% of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases occur in

Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Peru, Saudi Arabia and

Syria

 Produces a papule (sore), 1-2 weeks (or as long as 1-2

months) after the bite

 The papule gradually grows to form a relatively

painless ulcer

 The ulcer heals in 2-10 months, even if untreated but

leaves a disfiguring scar

 Disease may disseminate in the case of depressed

immune function

o Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis – L. braziliensis, L. mexicana

 The initial symptoms of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis

are the same as those of cutaneous leishmaniasis

 Later the organism can metastasize and the lesions

spread to mucoid (oral, pharyngeal, and nasal) tissues

 Leads to destruction of the area and causes severe

deformity

o Visceral leishmaniasis – Leishmania donovani (most serious

disease)

 Found in mononuclear phagocytic cells of spleen, liver,

lymph nodes, bone marrow, intestinal mucosa, and

other organs
 Gets taken up by the macrophage and hides inside it –

the irony – macrophage is supposed to protect you

 1-4 months after infection occurrence of fever, with

daily rise to 38-40 degrees C, accompanied by chills

and sweating

 Spleen and liver progressively become enlarged

 Skin develops hyper-pigmented granulomatous areas

(kala-azar means black disease)

 Chronic disease renders patients susceptible to other

infections

 Untreated disease results in death

- Visceral Leishmaniasis and HIV

o Leishmaniasis suppresses the immune system and increases

the onset of AIDS

o HIV infection increases the risk of developing active VL by

between 100 and 2320 times


o In southern Europe, up to 70% of cases of visceral

leishmainiasis in adults are associated with HIV infection

Leishmania sp. live inside macrophages

o Macrophages phagocytose parasites for destruction

o In macrophages destruction of a foreign antigen occurs when

lysosomes fuse with foreign antigen

o Leishmania parasites form a parasitophorous vacuole

o This vacuole is resistant to lysosomal damage

o Parasites continue to divide and eventually the cell burst

open

Diagnosis

o Cutaneous & mucocutaneous leishmaniasis isolation of the

organisms from the lesion aspirate or biopsy

o Visceral leishmaniasis – identification of amastigotes in a

blood smear

Treatment

o Pentostam or amphotericin B

o A course of intravenous injections

Control Strategies

o Controlling epidemics e. recent one in South Sudan (20092011)

o 25000 cases and caused more than 700 deaths

o Kept the mortality rate to show 5% compared with 35% in

the epidemic that occurred during the 1990s

o Better access to medicines – in December 2011, WHO signed

an agreement for the donation of 445,000 vials of liposomal


amphotericin B to treat visceral Leishmaniasis

o Regional elimination – 100% case-detection and elimination

in the Indian subcontinent by 2020


English (GB)

Great Britain

Company

About Us

Ask AI

Studocu World University Ranking 2023

E-Learning Statistics

Doing Good

Academic Integrity

Jobs

Blog

Dutch Website

Contact & Help

F.A.Q.

Contact

Newsroom

Legal

Terms

Privacy Policy

Cookie Statement

Google Play Link


Copyright © 2023 StudeerSnel B.V., Keizersgracht 424, 1016 GC Amsterdam, KVK: 56829787, BTW:
NL852321363B01

You might also like