Today, diseases caused by many types of protozoa and helminths are widespread.The danger of such diseases is explained not only by complications and malfunctions in the body caused by protozoa and worms 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);
- allergic skin reactions;
- general intoxication of the body;
- muscle and joint pain;
- dehydration.
To avoid errors in diagnosis and the prescription of inadequate treatment, which at best will be simply ineffective and at worst can lead to complications, you need to accurately determine the type of helminths and the degree of infection of the body with them.
Pathways of infection with protozoan helminths
All worms enter the body from the outside.The same goes for protozoan helminths.In the environment, they live in soil and bodies of water.In addition to washing your hands and eating poor quality food, you can become infected at home, through contact with a carrier.
The main mechanism of any infection is most often oral-fecal, that is, a person simply swallows worm eggs with food, water, and less often, some helminthic infestations occur as a result of bites of infected insects.
Protozoan worms that live in humans belong to the class of unicellular organisms.The infection is called protozoosis.Depending on the type and degree of invasion, the course of the disease can be serious and even lead to the death of the patient.
Which helminths are called protozoa?
Protozoan helminths can have a body of constant shape (ciliates and flagellates) and variable - a clear representative of the amoeba.Their sizes are very small and range from 4 to 5 micrometers to 1 to 3 millimeters.Often, the cell of these microorganisms has several nuclei.The organs of locomotion are pseudopodia, cilia and flagella.The reproduction process, depending on the species, occurs by halving or a complex sexual method.
To protect themselves from unfavorable external conditions, as well as to spread further, protozoan helminths can transform into cysts, which are cells covered with a protective membrane.This allows them to go from an immobile cyst to an active state if they enter a favorable environment.
It often happens that the host's body does not even notice the protozoan helminths parasitizing it.In other cases, infestation leads to the death of the host.For example, certain species of African antelope are permanent “hosts” of trypanosomatids.And the bite of a person by a tsetse fly, carrying these helminths, can infect them and cause sleeping sickness, which is known to be life-threatening.
The most studied protozoan helminths
Parasites of the human body belonging to the class of flagellates:
- Giardia is a parasite that usually 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 causes a disease such as giardiasis, a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, especially the small intestine.Many patients infected with Giardia have no 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;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 trypanosomatid, various systems and organs are affected.
- Amoeba dysentery parasitizes the intestines.Invasion occurs in the form of a 4-core cyst.Although amoeba dysentery occurs almost everywhere, the most common cases of infection are recorded in tropical countries.The amoeba causes an infectious protozoan disease 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 amoebiasis - these protozoan helminths pass from the intestines to other organs and even to the skin.The last form of the disease is called cutaneous amoebiasis - obvious signs of ulcerative necrosis are observed on the buttocks and perineum.
- Trichomonads cause trichomoniasis.Currently, several subspecies of Trichomonas have been studied.Intestinal, the parasitic zone of which is in the large intestine and helminths do not cause special damage to the intestines.The area of genitourinary Trichomonas parasitism, as the name suggests, is the genitourinary system.Infection occurs through sexual contact.This subspecies of protozoa causes such a disease as trichomoniasis.This infectious disease manifests itself by inflammatory phenomena of the genitourinary system.Oral Trichomonas parasitizes the oral cavity and poses no danger to humans.
The sporozoan species of protozoa is represented by malarial plasmodium and coccidia:
- Plasmodium falciparum, transmitted by mosquitoes and responsible for malaria, is a protozoan microorganism.It parasitizes the blood.Malaria in a person infected with this parasite manifests itself with the following symptoms: hypochromic anemia, bouts 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 is manifested by mild intoxication and symptoms of gastroenteritis or enteritis.
Ciliates: balantidia.This order of protozoa living in the large intestine causes 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 analyzes 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;
- non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs;
- detoxification medications;
- when a secondary bacterial infection occurs, narrowly targeted antibiotics.
The doctor prescribes specific treatment depending on the type of protozoan helminths and the degree of infestation.