Today, diseases caused by various types of protozoa and helminths are widespread.The danger of such diseases is explained not only by the complications and malfunctions in the body that protozoa and worms lead to in humans, but also by the difficulty in diagnosing the disease due to the similarity of symptoms with various non-parasitic diseases.
Helminths and protozoa cause:
- disturbances in the gastrointestinal tract (constipation, diarrhea, vomiting);
- skin allergic reactions;
- general intoxication of the body;
- muscle and joint pain;
- dehydration.
In order to avoid diagnostic errors and prescribing an inadequate course of treatment, which at best will simply be ineffective, and at worst can cause complications, you need to accurately determine the type of helminths and the degree of infection of the body with them.
Routes of infection with protozoan helminths
All worms enter the body from the outside.The same applies to protozoan helminths.In the environment, they live in soil and water bodies.In addition to unwashed hands and consumption of poor-quality food, you can also get infected with them at home, through contact with a carrier.
The main mechanism of any infection is most often oral-fecal, i.e.a person simply ingests worm eggs along with food, water, and less commonly, some helminth infestations occur from bites of infected insects.
Protozoan worms that live in humans belong to the class of unicellular organisms.The infection is called protozoa.Depending on the type and degree of invasion, the course of the disease can be severe and even cause the death of the patient.
What helminths are called protozoa?
Protozoan helminths can have a body with a constant shape (ciliated and flagellate) and variable - a clear representative of the amoeba.Their sizes are very small and vary from 4-5 micrometers to 1-3 millimeters.Often the cell of these microorganisms has several nuclei.The organs of locomotion are pseudopods, cilia and flagella.The process of reproduction, depending on the species, is carried out by halving or a complex sexual method.
To protect themselves from adverse external conditions, as well as for further spread, protozoan helminths can turn into cysts, which are cells covered with a protective membrane.This allows them to transform from a quiescent cyst into an active state if given a favorable environment.
There are often situations when the host's body does not even notice the protozoan helminths that parasitize it.In other cases, the infection leads to the death of the host.For example, some species of antelope in Africa are permanent "hosts" of trypanosomatids.And a bite of a person by a tsetse fly, which is a carrier of these helminths, can infect him and cause sleeping sickness, which is known to be life-threatening.
The most studied protozoan helminths
Parasites in the human body belonging to the class of flagellates:
- Giardia is a parasite that normally lives in the intestines, bile ducts and liver of vertebrates (humans and animals).They can be transmitted through food, water and other factors.This group of protozoa is the cause of a disease such as giardiasis, a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, namely the small intestine.Many patients infected with Giardia do not experience any obvious symptoms.
- Leishmania is a protozoan helminth transmitted by mosquitoes.After an insect bites a person, there is a high probability of contracting leishmaniasis.Signs of the disease include damage to the skin, mucous membranes and some internal organs;high fever and anemia are often signs of the disease.
- Trypanosomatids are protozoa transmitted by insects.When the body becomes infected, the disease causes trypanosomiasis.This disease has a long course.Depending on the type of trypanosomatids, different systems and organs are affected.
- The dysenteric amoeba parasitizes the intestine.The invasion occurs in the form of a 4-nucleate cyst.Although dysenteric amoeba is found almost everywhere, the most frequent cases of infection are recorded in tropical countries.Amoeba is the cause of such an infectious protozoan disease in humans as amebiasis.The clinical picture of the disease is ulcerative colitis, which is characterized by relapses and exacerbations.There are also cases of extraintestinal amoebiasis - these protozoan helminths pass from the intestine to other organs and even to the skin.The last form of the disease is called cutaneous amoebiasis - obvious ulcer-necrotic signs are observed on the buttocks and perineum.
- Trichomonads cause trichomoniasis.Currently, several subspecies of Trichomonas have been studied.Intestinal, whose parasitizing area is in the large intestine, and the helminth does not cause particular damage to the intestine.The area of parasitism of genitourinary trichomonas, as the name suggests, is the genitourinary system.Infection occurs through sexual contact.This subspecies of protozoa is the cause of a disease such as trichomoniasis.This infectious disease is manifested by inflammatory phenomena in the genitourinary system.Oral trichomonas parasitizes in the oral cavity and does not pose a danger to humans.
Sporozoan species of protozoa are represented by malarial plasmodium and coccidia:
- Plasmodium falciparum, transmitted by mosquitoes and the causative agent of malaria, is a protozoan microorganism.Parasites in the blood.Malaria in a person infected with this parasite manifests itself with the following symptoms: hypochromic anemia, attacks of fever, enlargement of organs such as the liver and spleen.
- Coccidia are protozoa that live in the epithelial tissue of the intestines of many animals.A number of species of coccidia are the causative agents of the disease coccidiosis.In humans, this disease occurs with mild intoxication and symptoms of gastroenteritis or enteritis.
Ciliated: Ballantidia.This order of protozoa living in the large intestine is the cause of a disease such as ciliated dysentery (balantidiasis).
Diagnosis and treatment of protozoan helminths
Very often, when the presence of helminths in the body occurs without symptoms, the disease is not diagnosed for a long time.Invasion can be suspected by specific symptoms and detected only by laboratory tests of feces, urine, blood and fluids obtained by puncture from various organs and systems.
In medical practice, there are general principles for the treatment of protozoan invasion:
- antiparasitic drugs;
- nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs;
- detoxification drugs;
- when secondary bacterial infection occurs, narrowly targeted antibiotics.
The doctor prescribes a specific treatment based on the type of protozoan helminth and the degree of infection.