Parasitic diseases

Background

  • Although any organism that "lives in or on another and takes its nourishment from that other organism" is technically a parasite, in common medical parlance "parasitic diseases" refer to infections due to protozoa, helminths, arthropods, or other "macroparasites"

List

African Sleeping Sickness

Swimmer's Itch

  • Cercaria (non-human schistisomes)
  • Exposed areas

Seabather's Eruption

Enterobius vermicularis

  • Nocturnal perianal itch (pinworm)

Larva Currens

  • Thumbprint sign: periumbilical purpura
  • Strongyloides stercoralis

Dracunculosis

  • Copepods (Cyclops spp)
  • Metro and excision


Trichinosis

  • Trichinella spiralis
  • Splinter hemorrhages
  • Pork, polar bear, walrus

M. Opercularis

  • Wolly caterpillar
  • Train-track hemorrages
  • 'Erucism' inflammation around hairs, can be chronic, can cause systemic effects

Cimex lenticularis


See Also