Parasitology

Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it forms a synthesis of other disciplines, and draws on techniques from fields such as cell biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, evolution and ecology. The study of these diverse organisms means that the subject is often broken up into simpler, more focused units, which use common techniques, even if they are not studying the same organisms or diseases. Much research in parasitology falls somewhere between two or more of these definitions. In general, the study of prokaryotes falls under the field of bacteriology rather than parasitology. Human parasites The parasitologist F. E. G. Cox noted that "Humans are hosts to nearly 300 species of parasitic worms and over 70 species of protozoa, some derived from our primate ancestors and some acquired from the animals we have domesticated or come in contact with during our relatively short history on Earth". One of the largest fields in parasitology, medical parasitology is the subject that deals with the parasites that infect humans, the diseases caused by them, clinical picture and the response generated by humans against them. It is also concerned with the various methods of their diagnosis, treatment and finally their prevention & control. A parasite is an organism that live on or within another organism called the host. These include organisms such as: Plasmodium spp., the protozoan parasite which causes malaria. The four species infective to humans are P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. vivax and P. ovale. Leishmania, unicellular organisms which cause leishmaniasis Entamoeba and Giardia, which cause intestinal infections (dysentery and diarrhoea) Multicellular organisms and intestinal worms (helminths) such as Schistosoma spp., Wuchereria bancrofti, Necator americanus (hookworm) and Taenia spp.