PARASITES

• Practical
 Parasites

Endoparasite Ectoparasite

Protozoa Metazoa Arthropods

Introduction
• Parasite is an organism baring food and shelter temporarily
or permanent and living in or on another organism.
• Parasites can be
1. Facultative parasite: parasites able to live both free
living and parasite living e.g. Strongyloides species.
2. Obligate parasite: parasite living permanently in a host
and cannot live without a host e.g. Trichomonos species.
3. Coprozoic (spurious) parasites: foreign, pass through
alimentally canal without affect.
• Clinical Parasitology:
deals with animal parasites of man and
their medical importance.
• A host : is an organism harboring the parasite species and it may
be affected or not.
• Types of Hosts:
1. Definitive host:
• Harbors the adult/final stages or sexual stages (♂♀) in the
• development of parasite e.g. man.
2. Intermediate host:
• Harbors the larva/Intermediate stages or asexual stages in the
• development of parasite e.g. Taenia.
• Adult------ man
• Larva –--- cattle
3. Reservoir host (carrier):
• The carrier host is well adapted to the parasite and tolerates the
• infection but serve as source of the infection to other organisms
Life Cycle
• Life cycle : The whole process of parasite
growing and developing.
• Types of Life Cycle:
1. The direct life-cycle: Only one host (no
intermediate host).
2. The indirect life cycle: Life cycle with more
than one host (intermediate host and final
host
Taenia saginata

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Cestoda
Order: Cyclophyllidea
Family: Taeniidae
Genus: Taenia
Species: T. saginata T. solum
• 1 - Is the beef tapeworm. Humans are definitive hosts
• 2 -infected byof eating raw or undercooked beef which
contains the infective larvae
• 3 - It is an intestinal parasite
• 4 - larvae are settle in skeletal muscles within 70 days.
• Description
• 1 - Adult worm is normally 4 to 10 m in length, toover 22
• M long .
• 2 - Its body is flattened dorsoventrally and heavily segmented.
• - The body is white in colour
3

• 4 -consists of three portions:

• scolex(4 sucker, no hook) , neck, and strobila.

 5 - The strobila, is basically a chain of numerous body segments called proglottids.
6 - An individual can have as many as 1000 to 2000 proglottids.
proglottid hcomplete male and female reproductive systems (uterus, ovary, genital pore,
testes)

7 - self-fertilisation produces zygotes, which divide and differentiate

into embryonic eggs called (oncospheres).
8 -Humans consider as a definitive host.
• Symptoms
• weight loss, dizziness, abdominal pain,
diarrhea, headaches, nausea, constipation,
chronic indigestion, and loss of appetite, And
intestinal obstruction .The tapeworm can also
expel antigens that can cause an allergic
reaction in the individual.
• Diagnosis
• The basic diagnosis is done from a stool
sample. Feces are examined to find parasite
eggs.
 Taenia solium

• Description
• 1 - Is the pork tapeworm . It completes its life cycle in
humans as the definitive host and pigs as intermediate host
• 2 - The adult worm is flat, ribbon-like body, which is white in
color and measures 2 to 3 m in length , to8 m long
• 3 - Its head, the scolex, contains 4 suckers and a rostellum as
organs of attachment , is armed with two rows of spiny hooks
. The 22 to 32 hooks
• 4 -strobila, consists of a chain of segments (proglottids), About
800 to 900 in number
• 5 -Mmature proglottid contains a set of male and female reproductive
systems.

6 - The infective larvae, cysticerci, in humans

• Life cycle
• The life cycle of T. solium passes through pigs, as intermediate hosts, into
humans, as definitive hosts.
• From humans, the eggs are released in the environment where they await
ingestion by another host. Humans as the definitive hosts are directly infected
from contaminated meat.
• It is transmitted to pigs through human feces ingest embryonated eggs called
morula, which develop into larvae, the oncospheres, and ultimately into
infective larvae (cysticerci).
• And to humans by the larval stage (the cysticercus), through uncooked or
undercooked pork.
• Diagnosis in the definitive host, the dog, may be done by post mortem
examination of the small intestine

Egg of T. solium
• Echinococcus granulosus
• Kingdom:Animalia
• Phylum:Platyhelminthes
• Class:Cestoda
• Order:Cyclophyllidea
• Family:Taeniidae
• Genus:Echinococcus
• Species: Granulosus
• Binomial nameEchinococcus granulosus
 Echinococcus granulose
• human pathogen and the only one that causes significant bone
disease.
• also called the hydatid worm, or dog tapeworm
Description
• has four suckers on its scolex, and also has a rostellum with hooks.
• length from 3 mm to 6 mm
• has three proglottids ("segments") immature proglottid, mature
proglottid and a gravid proglottid.
• number of eggs per gravid proglottid is 823
Life cycle
1 –when meat raw of cattle with cyst is ingested, the
larva attaches to the mucosa of the intestines in the
definitive host (e.g., dogs) and then the larva will grow
into the adult stages.
2 - Adult E. granulosus release eggs within the intestine
which will be transported out of the body via feces.
3 - When contaminated waste is excreted into the
environment,the intermediate host (cattle’s or human)
ingest eggs in contaminated pasture.
4 - Once sheep are infected, the infection remains within
the sheep for life.
5 - E. granulosus is transmitted from the intermediate
host (sheep) to the definitive host (dogs) by frequent
feeding of offal, also referred to as “organ meat”.
 Life cycle(in human)
1 - Human infections occur from the ingestion of
contaminated water and food, handling of live animals
that act as definitive hosts (e.g., dogs)
2 - The swallowed eggs hatch in the small intestine and
release minute hooked embryos, which burrow
through the bowel wall.
3 - Then transported by the blood stream to the lung,
liver, brain, skeletal muscle, and eyes.
4 - Once organisms reach their final destination, they
produce hydrated larval cysts.
5 -These cysts are filled with fluid and lined by an inner
germinal membrane that produces brood capsules.
6 - The inner wall of the brood capsules facilitates an
asexual budding process that generates thousands
of new larval tapeworms (protoscolices) in
daughter cysts.
7 - The hydatid cysts size (2 to 30 cm), have a thick
wall, and contain clear, pale-yellow fluid.
8- The sites of bone disease commonly include the
spine, pelvis, and long bones. Once lodged within
bone, the hydatid cyst fills the spaces between the
bony trabeculae; causing pain , swelling, and
sometimes pathologic fracture.
Hymenolepis nana, The Dwarf Tapeworm

• Kingdom:Animalia
• Phylum:Platyhelminthes
• Class:Cestoda
• Order:Cyclophyllidea
• Family:Hymenolepididae
• Genus:Hymenolepis
• Species:H. nana
• Binomial name Hymenolepis nana
 Hymenolepis nana, The Dwarf Tapeworm
Structure
1 - The worms, 15 to 50 mm long, have minute segments.
2 -A four sucker scolex with a retractable spined anterior rostellum .
3 -The terminal gravid segments, break up and release their egg in the
fecal.
4 -The larval form is a cysticercoid, a tailed structure.
5 - larvae are found in insect as intermediate hosts (cysticercoid).
6 - cysticercoid larvae can develop either in an insect or in the small
intestinal villi of its human (or rodent) final host.
Life Cycle :
(1) Eggs are immediately infective when passed with the stool and
cannot survive more than 10 days in the external environment.
(2) When eggs are ingested by an arthropod (a beetle or a flea) as
intermediate host
(3) then develop into cysticercoids, which can infect humans or rodents
upon ingestion, develop into adults in the small intestine.
(4) When eggs are ingested (in contaminated food or water or from
hands contaminated with feces),by human (or rodent) final host, the
oncospheres contained in the eggs are released.
(5) The oncospheres (hexacanth larvae) penetrate the intestinal villus
and develop into cysticercoid larvae
(6) Upon rupture of the villus, the cysticercoids return to the intestinal
lumen, evaginate their scolexes
(7). attach to the intestinal mucosa and develop into adults ,producing
gravid proglottids . A proglottid absorbs nutrients from the
surroundings and grows bigger (has both male and female
reproductive organs).
(8) Eggs are passed in the stool when released from proglottids.
• Diagnosis
• H nana infections can be diagnosed accurately
and rapidly by inspecting the stool for eggs.
• Fasciola Hepatica
• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Class: Trematoda
• Family: Fasciolidae
• Genus: Fasciola
• Species: F. hepatica
 Description
1 - The two species of trematodes that cause
fascioliasis (Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola
gigantica)
2 - Are leaf-shaped worms, (adult F. hepatica measure
20-30 mm x 13 mm adult)
3 - Adult infests humans, also herbivorous mammals
4 -The parasite lives in the liver and bile duct.
5 - Intermediate host is the snail, lives in standing
water.
 Complications
• It is often associated with anaemia , especially in children.
• Pancreatitis.
• Biliary fibrosis.

Life cycle
1 - Definitive hosts are cattle , sheep , buffaloes , and humans.
2 -Immature eggs are discharged in the biliary ducts and in the stool.
3 - Eggs become embryonated in water.
4 - Eggs release miracidia.
5 - Which invade a snail intermediate host,
6 - In the snail the parasites undergo several developmental stages
( sporocysts, rediae, cercariae).
7-The cercariae are released from the snail and encyst as metacercariae
on aquatic vegetation or other surfaces.
8-Humans and Mammals can become infected by ingesting
metacercariae-containing freshwater plants.
9-After ingestion, the metacercariae excyst in the duodenum
10-Then migrate through the intestinal wall, the peritoneal cavity, and
the liver parenchyma into the biliary ducts, where they develop into
adult flukes.
Diagnosis :A diagnosis may be made by finding yellow-
brown eggs in the stool.
Early stage of the infection can be diagnosed from a
blood sample, if antibodies are found.

• F. hepatica egg in stool sample.

 Schistosoma
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Platyhelminthes
• Class: Trematoda
• Order: Diplostomida
• Family: Schistosomatidae
• Genus: Schistosoma
 Description
1 - Unlike all other trematodes, schistosomes are not hermaphroditic
but dioecious, forming separate sexes.
2 -Adult have elongate tubular bodies (10-20mm long), with oral and
ventral suckers., each male having a unique gynecophoral canal in
which a female worm resides.
3 - They live inside blood vessels (known as blood flukes),form five
different developmental stages: eggs, miracidia, sporocysts,
cercariae and adult worms.
4 -Sporocysts appear as sac-like bodies which contain developing
cercariae.
5 -Mature cercariae are elongate free-swimming larval stages (400-
600µm long) consisting of a tapering head and a forked tail.
6 -.Schistosoma spp. [these species causes chistosomiasis (bilharzia in
humans and ruminants)]
 Life Cycle:
• Eggs are eliminated with feces or urine.
• Under optimal conditions the eggs hatch and release miracidia,
• which swim and penetrate specific snail intermediate hosts.
• The stages in the snail include 2 generations of sporocysts
• and the production of cercariae.
• Upon release from the snail, the infective cercariae swim, penetrate the
skin of the human host,
• and shed their forked tail, becoming schistosomulae.
• )The schistosomulae migrate through several tissues and stages to their
residence in the veins.
• Adult worms in humans reside in the mesenteric venules in various
locations, which at times seem to be specific for each species.
• For instance,
• S. japonicum is more frequently found in the superior mesenteric veins
draining the small intestine
• S. mansoni occurs in the superior mesenteric veins draining the large
intestine.
• S. haematobium most often occurs in the venous plexus of bladder.
 Ascaris
• Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chromadorea
Class: Nematoda
Order: Ascaridida
Family: Ascarididae
Genus: Ascaris
 Morphology
1 - Adult: cylindrical shape fusiform (pointed at both ends)
creamy white or pinkish in color
2 - Male: average 15–30 cm .Female: 20–35 cm in length
3 - Digestive system is complete.
4 - Respiration by simple diffusion.
5 - Nervous system consists of a nerve ring and many
longitudinal nerve cords.
6 - Only sexual reproduction.
 Life Cycle
1 - Infection occurs by eating food or drink contaminated with
Ascaris eggs from feces.
2 - The eggs hatch in the intestines, burrow the gut wall,
3 -And migrate to the lungs via the blood.
4 - There they break into the alveoli and pass up the trachea,
where they are coughed up and may be swallowed.
5 -The larvae then pass through the stomach for a second time
into the intestine, where they become adult worms.
6 -live in the lumen of the small intestine. A female may
produce approximately 200,000 eggs per day, which are
passed with the feces
It is a type of soil-transmitted helminthiasis
 Complications
1 - Cause visceral damage, peritonitis,
2 - Enlargement of the liver or spleen,
3 - An inflammation of the lungs. Pulmonary
manifestations take place during larval migration
4 - Caused gangrene of the ileum, which was interpreted as
the cause of death.
5 - A worm may block the ampulla of Vater, or go into the
main pancreatic duct, resulting in acute pancreatitis
6 -A worm can travel through the billiary tree and even into
the gallbladder, causing acute cholangitis.
7 - Ascariasis may result in allergies to shrimp and dustmites
 Diagnosis
• Most diagnoses are made by identifying the
appearance of the worm or eggs in feces.
 Hookworm
1 - Two species of hookworms that commonly infect humans
are Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus
2 - The head slightly bent in relation to the rest of the body.
3 - They possess developed mouths with two pairs of teeth
4 - While males measure approximately one centimeter by
0.5 millimeters, the females are often longer
5 - Additionally, males can be distinguished from females
based on the presence of
a prominent posterior
copulatory bursa
6 - N. americanus is generally smaller than A. duodenale
7 - Whereas A. duodenale possesses two pairs of teeth, N.
americanus possesses a pair of cutting plates in the buccal
capsule.
8 - Infective larvae of Necator americanus can survive at
higher temperatures, whereas those of Ancylostoma
duodenale are better adapted to cooler climates.
9 - Generally, they live for only a few weeks almost under
natural conditions, and die almost immediately on
exposure to direct sunlight.
 Life cycle
1 - Infection of the host is by the larvae, not the eggs.
2 - While A.duodenale can be ingested, the method of
infection is through the skin; this is commonly caused by
walking barefoot through areas contaminated with feces.
3 - The larvae are able to penetrate the skin of the foot, then
migrate through the vascular system to the lungs, and
from there up the trachea, and are then swallowed.
4 - Then pass down the esophagus then digestive system, and
reside in the intestine, where the larvae mature into adult.
5 - Once in the host gut, Necator tends to cause a prolonged
infection, generally 1–5 years.
6 - On the other hand, Ancylostoma adults are short-lived,
surviving on average for only about 6 months .
 Biological life cycle
1 - N. americanus and A. duodenale eggs can be found in
warm, moist soil where they will eventually hatch into
first stage larvae, or L1.
2 - L1, the non-infective rhabditoform stage, will feed on
soil microbes and molt into second stage larvae, L2.
3 - L2, which is also in the rhabditoform stage, will feed for
approximately 7 days and then molt into the third stage
larvae, or L3.
4 - L3 is the filariform stage of the parasite, that is, the non-
feeding infective form of the larvae.
5 - The L3 larvae are extremely motile and will seek higher
ground to increase their chances of penetrating the skin of a
human host.
6 - The L3 larvae can survive up to 2 weeks without finding a
host. While N. americanus larvae only infect through
penetration of skin, A. duodenale can infect both through
penetration as well as orally.
7 - After the L3 larvae have successfully entered the host,
the larvae then travel through the subcutaneous venules and
lymphatic vessels of the human host.
8 - Eventually, the L3 larvae enter the lungs through the
pulmonary capillaries and break out into the alveoli.
9 - They will then travel up the trachea to be coughed and
swallowed by the host.
10 - After being swallowed, the L3 larvae are resides in the
small intestine where they molt into the L4, or adult worm
.
11 - The entire process from skin penetration to adult
development takes about 5–9 weeks.
12 - The female adult worms will release eggs (N. americanus
about 9,000–10,000 eggs/day and A. duodenale 25,000–
30,000 eggs/day) which are passed in the feces of the
human host.
 Signs and symptoms
• hookworm infection, give rise to a combination of
intestinal inflammation and progressive iron-deficiency
anemia and protein deficiency.
• Coughing, chest pain, wheezing, and fever will sometimes
result from severe infection. Epigastric pains, indigestion,
nausea, vomiting, constipation, and diarrhea can occur,
and abdominal distension with ascites
• Larval invasion of the skin (mostly in the Americans) can
produce a skin disease called cutaneous larva migrans
usually on the foot or lower leg .
 Pinworm
1 - is a human parasite. The cause of a pinworm infection is
the worm Enterobius vermicularis.
2 - The period of time from swallowing eggs to the
appearance of new eggs around the anus is 4 to 8 weeks.
3 - The eggs initially occur around the anus and can survive
for up to three weeks in the environment.
4 - They may be swallowed following contamination of the
hands, food, or other articles.
5 - Everyone who lives with or takes care of an infected
person should be treated at the same time. Washing items
in hot water after each dose of medication is recommended.
Good handwashing, daily bathing in the morning, and daily
changing of underwear can help prevent reinfection.
Signs and symptoms
1 - Diagnosis is by seeing the worms which are about one
centimeter or the eggs under a microscope.
2 - One third of individuals with pinworm infection are totally
asymptomatic. The main symptoms are pruritus ani and
perineal pruritus, i.e., itching in and around the anus
3 - The itching leads to continuously scratching the area
around the anus, which can further result in tearing of the
skin and complications such as secondary bacterial
infections, including bacterial dermatitis (i.e., skin
inflammation) and folliculitis (i.e., hair follicle
inflammation).
4 - General symptoms are insomnia (i.e., persistent
difficulties to sleep) and restlessness.
5 - A considerable proportion of children suffer from loss of
appetite, weight loss, irritability, emotional instability, and
enuresis (i.e., inability to control urination).
 Life cycle
1 - The life cycle begins with eggs being ingested. The eggs
hatch in the duodenum
2 - The emerging pinworm larvae grow rapidly to a size of
140 to 150 micrometers in size, and migrate through the
small intestine towards the colon.
3 - During this migration they moult twice and become adults
Females survive for 5 to 13 weeks, and males about 7
weeks.
4 - The male and female pinworms mate in the ileum, where
after the male pinworms usually die, and are passed out with
stool.
5 - The gravid female pinworms settle in the ileum, curcuma ,
appendix and ascending colon, where they attach
themselves to the mucosa and ingest colonic contents.
6 - Almost the entire body of a gravid female becomes filled
with eggs .The estimations of the number of eggs in a
gravid female pinworm ranges from about 11,000 to 16,000.
7 - The egg-laying process begins approximately five weeks
after initial ingestion of pinworm eggs by the human host.
8 - The gravid female pinworms migrate through the colon
towards the rectum at a rate of 12 to 14 cm. per hour.
9 - They emerge from the anus,the female deposit eggs either
through :(1) contracting and expelling the eggs,
(2) dying and then disintegrating,
(3) bodily rupture due to the host scratching the worm.
• 10 - After depositing the eggs, the female becomes opaque
and dies. The reason the female emerges from the anus is to
obtain the oxygen necessary for the maturation of the eggs.
 Entamoeba
• Several species are found in humans and animals.
Entamoeba histolytica is the pathogen responsible for
invasive 'amoebiasis' (which includes amoebic dysentery
and amoebic liver abscesses).
• Structure
• Entamoeba cells are small, with a single nucleus and
typically a single lobose pseudopod taking the form of a
clear anterior bulge.
 They have a simple life cycle
1 - The trophozoite (feeding-dividing form) is approximately 10-20 μm in
diameter and feeds primarily on bacteria.

Trophozoites of E. histolytica with ingested erythrocytes

2 - It divides by simple binary fission to form two smaller
daughter cells.

3 - Uni-nucleated trophozoites convert into cysts The number of

nuclei in the cyst vary .
4 - Of the species already mentioned, Entamoeba coli forms
cysts with 8 nuclei while the others form tetra-nucleated
cysts. Since E. histolytica does not form cysts in vitro in the
absence of bacteria

5 - The genus Entamoeba contains many species, six of which

are found in the human intestinal tract: Entamoeba
histolytica, Entamoeba dispar, Entamoeba moshkovskii,
Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba hartmanni, and Entamoeba
polecki. Of these species, only E.histolytica is associated
with pathological injuries; the others are considered to be
nonpathogenic species
• Over view of E.histolytica

• Infective stage Cyst (having 4 nuclei)

• Definitive host Human
• Portal of entry Mouth
• Mode of transmission Ingestion mature cyst
• Habitat Colon and cecum
• Pathogenic stage Trophozoite
• Mode of reproduction Binary fission
• Number of nuclei 1 in early stages, 4 when
mature
 Giardia Intestinalis
1 - Giardia intestinalis (also known as Giardia lamblia is a
protozoan flagellate causing giardiasis in the small intestine.
2 - It attaches to the mucosa and absorbs nutrients that it gets
from the intestinal wall.
3 - In addition to humans, it infects birds, cows, sheep, dogs
and cats.
4 - Giardia intestinalis trophozoites are pear-shaped and 10–20
µm long. flagella, sucking disks
and two big nuclei.
Giardia intestinalis cysts are oval to
ellipsoid and 8–19 µm long.
Immature cysts have two nuclei,
whereas mature cysts have four.
5 - Giardia is protected by an outer shell that allows it to
survive outside the body for long periods of time and makes
it tolerant to chlorine disinfection.

Life cycle
1 - Giardia intestinalis lives as active trophozoites in the
small intestine.
2 - Some trophozoites encyst into cysts which are released in a
bowel movement.
3 -The feces might contaminate soil, water, food or surfaces
such as bathroom sinks.
4 - The cyst has a protective shell and it can survive in the
environment for many weeks (in cold water many months).
5 - You become infected after accidentally swallowing the
microscopic cysts. Each cyst releases two trophozoites in
the small intestine.
6 - They remain in the lumen where they can feed freely or
attached to the mucosa by a ventral sucking disk.
7 - After eating enough, they go through another
transformation and multiply by binary fission.
8 - The trophozoites encyst as they move towards the colon.
9 - Cysts are found more often in firm stool whereas both
trophozoites and cysts are present in loose stool. Because
the cysts become infective almost instantly after being
passed out,
 Common giardiasis symptoms include:
Bloating bad breath and farts
Dehydration diarrhea or greasy floating stools
Fatigue loss of appetite
Nausea stomach ache
Weakness weight loss
• Diarrhea can be fatal, if you do not drink enough water
with salt and glucose. Another not so recognizable effect is
the lack of B12-vitamin. This is due to the impaired
absorption (malabsorption) in the damaged intestinal wall..
 Trichomonas vaginalis
1 - Is an anaerobic, flagellated protozoan parasite and the
causative agent of trichomoniasis.
2 - It is a pathogenic protozoan infection of humans.
Infection rates between men and women are similar, with
women being symptomatic, while in men are asymptomatic.
3 - Transmission occurs via direct, skin-to-skin contact with an
infected individual, most often through vaginal intercourse
Symptoms
Trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted infection of the
urogenital tract, is cause a vaginitis in women with
'Frothy', greenish vaginal discharge with malodorous smell.
Men with this infection can display symptoms of urethritis.
burning with urination. Itching in the genital area
 Complications
• Some of the complications of T. vaginalis in women
include: preterm delivery, low birth weight, and increased
mortality as well as predisposing to cervical cancer.
• T. vaginalis has also been reported cause pneumonia,
bronchitis, and oral lesions.
• Trichomonas vaginalis infection in males has been found to
cause asymptomatic urethritis and prostatitis.
 Morphology
1 - Trichomonas vaginalis exists in only one morphological
stage, a trophozoite, and cannot encyst. The T. vaginalis
trophozoite is oval as well as flagellated,
2 - It is larger than a white blood cell, measuring 9 × 7 μm.
3 - Five flagella arise near the cytostome; four of these extend
outside the cell together, while the fifth flagellum wraps
backwards along the surface of the organism.
• The In addition, a conspicuous barb-like axostyle projects
opposite the four-flagella bundle. The axostyle may be used
for attachment to surfaces and may also cause the tissue
damage seen in trichomoniasis infections.
• While T. vaginalis does not have a cyst form, organisms
can survive for up to 24 hours in urine, semen, or even
water samples
 Leishmania
• Are responsible for the disease leishmaniasis.They are
spread by sandflies
Structure

• Leishmania species are unicellular eukaryotes having a

well-defined nucleus and other cell organelles and flagella.
Depending on the stage of their life cycle, they exist in two
structural variants, as:
1 - The amastigote form is found in the mononuclear
phagocytes and circulatory systems of humans. It is an
intracellular and nonmotile form, It is oval in shape,
2 - The promastigote form is found in the alimentary tract
of sandflies. It is an extracellular and motile form. It is
spindle-shaped, tapering at both ends. A long flagellum is
projected externally at the anterior end. The nucleus lies at
the centre.
Symptoms :
Cutaneous leishmaniasis: Skin sores , Swollen glands
Visceral leishmaniasis: Fever, Weight loss ,Enlarged
spleen ,Enlarged liver , Anemia , Low white blood cell
count , Low platelet count .
 Intracellular mechanism of infection
1 - In order to avoid destruction by the immune system and
thrive, the Leishmania 'hides' inside its host's cells.
2 - This location enables it to avoid the action of the humoral
immune response (because the pathogen is safely inside a
cell and outside the open bloodstream),
3 - And furthermore it may prevent the immune system from
destroying its host through non danger surface signals
which discourage apoptosis.
4 - -The primary cell types that Leishmania infiltrates are
phagocytotic cells such as neutrophils and macrophages.
5 - Usually, a phagocytotic immune cell like a macrophage
will ingest a pathogen within an enclosed endosome and fill
this endosome with enzymes which digest the pathogen.
6 - However, in the case of Leishmania, these enzymes have
no effect, allowing the parasite to multiply rapidly.
7 - This uninhibited growth of parasites eventually
overwhelms the host macrophage or other immune cell,
causing it to die.
8 - Transmitted by the sandfly, the protozoan parasites of L.
may switch the strategy of the first immune defense from
eating/inflammation/killing to no eating/no inflammation/no
killing of their host phagocyte and corrupt it for their own
benefit.
9 - They use the willingly phagocytosing neutrophil (PMNs)
rigorously as a tricky hideout, where they proliferate
unrecognized from the immune system and enter the long-
lived macrophages to establish a "hidden" infection.
 Plasmodium
• is a genus of unicellular parasites, many of which cause
malaria in their hosts. Different species of Plasmodium
infect reptiles, birds, and primates including humans.
Additionally, all Plasmodium species infect an insect host,
most commonly a mosquito.
 Life cycle
1 - The life-cycles of Plasmodium species involve several
different stages( insect stage, liver stage, red blood stage)
both in the insect and the vertebrate host.
2 – infection start when a sporozoites was injected by an
infected insect bite into the vertebrate host's blood.
3 - Sporozoites enter the liver through the bloodstream and
multiply into merozoites, which return to the bloodstream.
4 - Merozoites infect red blood cells, where they develop
through several stages to produce either more merozoites, or
differentiate into male or female sexual forms called
gametocytes.
5 - gametocytes which are taken up by insects that feed on
the vertebrate host.
6 - In the mosquito, the gametocytes move along with the
blood meal to the mosquito's midgut. Here the male and
female gametes which fertilize each other, forming a
zygote.
7 - Zygotes then develop into a motile form called an
ookinete,
8 - Ookinete penetrates the wall of the midgut .Then
ookinete embeds into the gut's exterior membrane and
develops into an oocyst.
9 - Oocysts divide many times to produce large numbers of
small elongated sporozoites
10 - These sporozoites migrate to the salivary glands of the
mosquito where they can be injected into the blood of the
next host the mosquito bites, repeating the cycle.
 What causes malaria?
1 - Malaria can occur if a mosquito infected with the
Plasmodium parasite bites you.
2 - An infected mother can also pass the disease to her baby
at birth. This is known as congenital malaria. Malaria is
transmitted by blood, so it can also be transmitted through:
1 - An organ transplant 2 - A transfusion
3 - Use of shared syringes
What are the symptoms of malaria?
The symptoms of malaria typically develop within 10 days
to four weeks following the infection. Common symptoms
of malaria include: shaking chills , fever, profuse sweating
headache, Nausea, vomiting , abdominal pain, diarrhea
anemia, muscle pain, convulsions , coma , bloody stools
 Toxoplasma gondii
discription
1 - is a single-celled eukaryotic protozoan parasite
2 -The conoid end. And the apical site, is the more pointed
part of the cell, It is main function is to attachment
and infiltration of host cells.
 3 - The microbe encysts itself within the tissues of the brain
of the host, causing loss of normal
cognitive brain function,
impaired judgment,
slowed reflexes,
behavioral changes
may occur in infected humans,
like schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder
T. gondii has been shown to
alter the behavior of infected
rodents in ways that increase
the rodents' chances of being preyed upon by felids .
 Lifecycle
1 - The lifecycle can be summarized into two components:
A - A sexual component that occurs only within cats (felids,
wild or domestic) therefore considered as a definitive host.
B - An asexual component that occur within humans, cats,
and birds then considered an intermediate hosts
2 - When a cat is infected with T. gondii (e.g. by consuming an
infected mouse carrying the parasite's tissue cysts), the
parasite survives passage through the stomach, then
infecting epithelial cells of the cat's small intestine.
3 - Inside these intestinal cells, the parasites undergo sexual
development and reproduction, producing millions of
thick-walled, zygote-containing cysts known as oocysts.
4 - Infected epithelial cells eventually rupture and release
oocysts into the intestinal lumen, where upon they are shed
in the cat's feces.
5 - Oocysts can then spread to soil, water, food, or anything
contaminated with the feces. Oocysts can survive and
remain infective for many months in cold and dry climates.
6 - Ingestion of oocysts by humans or other warm-blooded
animals ..Humans can be exposed to oocysts by, for
example, consuming unwashed vegetables or contaminated
water, or by handling the feces (litter) of an infected cat.
7 - When an oocyst or tissue cyst is ingested, the cyst wall is
dissolved by proteolytic enzymes in the stomach and small
intestine, freeing sporozoites from within the oocyst.
8 -The sporozoites first invade cells in the intestinal
epithelium,,then parasites differentiate into tachyzoites,
the motile and quickly multiplying cellular stage.
9 - Inside host cells, the tachyzoites replicate .inside
specialized vacuoles that created during parasitic entry into
the cell.Tachyzoites multiply inside this vacuole until the
host cell dies and ruptures, releasing and spreading the
tachyzoites via the bloodstream to all organs and tissues of
the body, including the brain. tachyzoite proliferated
causing tachyzoites to convert into bradyzoites,
10 - Inside host cells, clusters of these bradyzoites are known
as tissue cysts.
11 - Consumption of tissue cysts in meat induce infection
both for humans and meat-eating, warm-blooded animals.
12 - When a host consumes a tissue cyst (containing
bradyzoites) or an oocyst (containing sporozoites), the
bradyzoites or sporozoites stage-convert into tachyzoites
upon infecting the intestinal epithelium of the host.

T. gondii tissue cyst in brain,

individual bradyzoites can
be seen within

Two tachyzoites
 Symptoms
• Most healthy people have no signs or symptoms
• Some people, develop signs and symptoms similar to
those of the flu, including:
Body aches , Swollen lymph nodes , Headache Fever,
Fatigue
• In people with weakened immune systems
Headache , Confusion , Poor coordination , Seizures
Lung problems resemble tuberculosis or pneumonia
Blurred vision caused by severe inflammation of retina