PARASITIC DISEASES

Parasitic diseases (invasive diseases) – a group of diseases caused by parasites
(helminths and arthropods).

Parasites can have various effects on the human body: cause mechanical irritation, damage to tissues or organs, poisoning with products of their metabolism, sensitization of the body with the subsequent development of allergic reactions, absorb blood and food substances, and complicate the course of other diseases.

Parasites can also forward to the penetration of infectious disease agents at the site of
their introduction into the tissues.

According to the World Health Organization, about 4.5 billion people are infected with invasive diseases in the world, one second in the USA, and every third in Europe, and 75% of the cases are urban population. The most susceptible to parasitic diseases were children, and the result of this negative impact is a mental retardation, a decrease in natural resistance to infectious and somatic diseases, and a noticeable inefficiency of mandatory preventive vaccination

The causative agent of the invasion is a patient or parasite carrier (human or animal) the host of the parasite. In some parasitic diseases, the host of the parasite can be as a source of ivasion for itself (for example, repeated infection with pinworms with the habit of biting nails, under them people with enterobiosis may have pinworm eggs).

There is a number of ways of transmitting the parasitic diseases:
– through the gastrointestinal tract;
– by air, through dust with cysts and eggs of helminths;
– through the blood by the bites of insects;
– through person-to-person contact

Modern medicine has methods and tools that can detect parasites even if there are no symptoms of the disease with the help of infectiologists and specialists in parasitology, who study, treat and prevent of invasive diseases.