Today, diseases caused by a variety 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 cause in humans, but also by the difficulty in diagnosing the disease due to the similarity of symptoms with many non-parasitic diseases.
Helminths and protozoa cause:
- gastrointestinal disorders (constipation, diarrhea, vomiting);
- allergic skin reactions;
- general intoxication of the body;
- muscle and joint pain;
- dehydration.
To avoid diagnostic errors and prescribing an incomplete course of treatment, which at best is ineffective and at worst can cause complications, you should accurately determine the type of helminths and the degree of infection of the body with them.
Infection routes of protozoan helminths
All types of worms enter the body from the outside.The same is true for unicellular helminths.In addition to the environment, they live in land and water areas.In addition to not washing your hands and eating poor quality food, you can become infected at home by coming into contact with someone carrying the disease.
The main mechanism of any infection is usually the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person simply swallows worm eggs with food, water, and less often, some helminth infections occur due to the bite of an infected insect.
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, even causing the patient to die.
Which helminths are called protozoa?
Unicellular helminths can have bodies of constant shape (ciliates and flagella) and variable bodies - a clear representative of amoebas.Their size is very small and ranges from 4-5 micrometers to 1-3 mm.Normally the cells of these microorganisms have several nuclei.Motor organs are pseudopods, cilia and flagella.Reproduction, depending on the species, occurs by halving or a complex method of reproduction.
To protect themselves from unfavorable external conditions, as well as for further spread, unicellular helminths can turn into cysts, which are cells covered with a protective membrane.This allows them to transition from an immobile cyst to an active state if they enter a favorable environment.
There are often situations when the host body does not even notice that the protozoan helminth is parasitic in it.In other cases, 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 carries this helminth disease, can infect the person and cause sleeping sickness, which is known to be life-threatening.
Unicellular helminths are the most studied
Parasites in the human body belong to the flagellum class:
- Giardia is a parasite that commonly lives in the intestines, bile ducts, and liver of vertebrates (humans and animals).They can be transmitted through food, water and other elements.This group of protozoa is the cause of diseases such as giardiasis, a dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, specifically the small intestine.Many patients infected with Giardia do not experience any obvious symptoms.
- Leishmania is a single-celled helminth transmitted by mosquitoes.After being bitten by an insect, there is a high chance of contracting leishmaniasis.Signs of the disease include damage to the skin, mucous membranes and some internal organs;Fever and anemia are often signs of the disease.
- Trypanosomatids are protozoa transmitted by insects.When the body is infected, the disease causes trypanosomiasis.This disease has a long course.Depending on the type of trypanosomatids, different systems and organs are affected.
- Amoebic dysentery is a parasitic disease in the intestines.Invasion occurs as a quadruplex cyst.Although amoebic dysentery is found almost everywhere, the most common cases of infection are recorded in tropical countries.Amoebas are the cause of infectious protozoan diseases in humans such as amoebiasis.The clinical picture of the disease is ulcerative colitis, characterized by relapses and exacerbations.There are also cases of extraintestinal amebiasis - these single-celled helminths pass from the intestines to other organs and even to the skin.The latest form of the disease is called cutaneous amebiasis - clear ulcerative-necrotic signs are observed on the buttocks and perineum.
- Trichomonas causes trichomoniasis.Currently, several Trichomonas subspecies have been studied.The intestinal tract, the parasitic area located in the large intestine, and helminths do not cause any specific harm to the intestines.The parasitic site of genital Trichomonas is, as the name suggests, the genital system.Infection occurs through sexual contact.This subspecies of protozoa is responsible for diseases such as trichomoniasis.This infectious disease is manifested by inflammation in the genitourinary system.Oral trichomonas is parasitic in the oral cavity and is not dangerous to humans.
Spore protozoa species are represented by malaria plasmodium and coccidia:
- Plasmodium falciparum, transmitted by mosquitoes and the cause of malaria, is a single-celled microorganism.It is parasitic in the blood.Malaria in people infected with this parasite is manifested by the following symptoms: hypochromic anemia, fever, and enlargement of organs such as the liver and spleen.
- Coccidia are protozoa that live in the intestinal epithelial tissue of many animals.Some species of coccidia are the causative agents of coccidiosis.In humans, this disease occurs with mild intoxication and symptoms of gastroenteritis or enteritis.
Ciliates: baantidia.This order of protozoa living in the large intestine is responsible for a disease such as ciliate dysentery (balantida).
Diagnosis and treatment of protozoan helminths
Very often, when the presence of helminths in the body occurs without symptoms, the disease remains undiagnosed for a long time.Invasion can be suspected by specific symptoms and detected only through laboratory tests of stool, 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;
- antidote;
- When secondary infection occurs, use narrowly targeted antibiotics.
Your doctor prescribes specific treatment based on the type of protozoan helminth and the level of infection.