History of Human Parasitology

Abstract

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. Our knowledge of parasitic infections extends into antiquity, and descriptions of parasites and parasitic infections are found in the earliest writings and have been confirmed by the finding of parasites in archaeological material. The systematic study of parasites began with the rejection of the theory of spontaneous generation and the promulgation of the germ theory. Thereafter, the history of human parasitology proceeded along two lines, the discovery of a parasite and its subsequent association with disease and the recognition of a disease and the subsequent discovery that it was caused by a parasite. This review is concerned with the major helminth and protozoan infections of humans: ascariasis, trichinosis, strongyloidiasis, dracunculiasis, lymphatic filariasis, loasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, cestodiasis, paragonimiasis, clonorchiasis, opisthorchiasis, amoebiasis, giardiasis, African trypanosomiasis, South American trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, malaria, toxoplasmosis, cryptosporidiosis, cyclosporiasis, and microsporidiosis

Pharmaceuticals

“…5.165). [416,417] Evidence of diseases marked by periodic (tertian or quartan) fever [418] attacks is also provided by Indian traditional medicines (Ayurveda). Already the oldest reference texts, like the Charaka Samhita, distunguish between fever episodes recurring every third or fourth day (caused by Plasmodium vivax or Plasmodium ovale (malaria tertiana), and respectively by Plasmodium malariae (malaria quartana)).…”

Artemisinin

“…In diesem Buch werden epidemisch auftretende, paroxysmale (anfallsartige) Fiebererkrankungen in Verbindung mit der Vergrößerung der Milz beschrieben, die als Plasmodium vivax-oder Plasmodium malariae-Infektionen gedeutet werden können [8].…”

In vitro antitrypanosomal potential of chloroform leaf extract of Punica granatum L. on Trypanosoma brucei brucei and Trypanosoma evansi

“…2 The trypanosomes had been first reported to occur in trouts (Valentine, 1841) and frogs (Gluge, 1842), 3 but it was not until 1881 that Griffith Evans found trypanosomes in the blood of horses and camels with a wasting disease called Surra and suggested that the parasites might be the cause of this disease. 4 In 1895, the Scottish Pathologist and Microbiologist David Bruce discovered Trypanosoma brucei as the cause of cattle nagana (cattle Trypanosomiasis). 5 Surra is widespread in different parts of the world and poses a major constraint to camel productivity.…”