Effective public health strategies depend on surveillance, preventative measures, outbreak investigation and the institution of control measures including appropriate treatment. This handbook, written specifically for community nurses, describes the communicable diseases likely to be encountered by the community nurse and offers practical guidance on their assessment and treatment. The book looks at staff hygiene and a clean environment and examines the causes and management of blood-borne illnesses together with recommendations for the treatment of head lice, scabies and threadworms. The latter part of the book discusses the prevention of influenza and the rising incidence of tuberculosis and the care of patients with these conditions and considers other common infections such as MRSA, impetigo, shingles and meningitis.

This completely updated second edition provides a clear account of how immune responses operate and how parasites can evade immunity. Parasites have evolved to exploit hosts' bodies, whereas hosts have evolved immune systems to control infections. Host-parasite interactions therefore provide fascinating examples of evolutionary "arms-races" in which the immune system plays a key role. Including an expanded section on anti-parasite vaccines, the text focuses on modern research in immunoparasitology directed at understanding and exploiting the capacity to develop effective anti-parasite immunity. The experimental basis of this research is emphasized throughout. The text is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates with interests in either parasitology or immunology and contains introductory sections on these topics.

Parasites are a major issue affecting animal and human health, welfare, and economic productivity. This book provides 555 questions to test your knowledge of animal and tropical parasitology, to help you study anywhere, with any amount of time. Key features: Covers the most important and the most neglected parasites in a concise manner. Questions address parasite biology, epidemiology, diagnostics and management, all in relation to animal health. Includes key zoonotic parasites and their impact on human health. Uses multiple choice questions, true or false statements, fill-in-the-blanks, and more, to enable independent learning and self-testing. Provides explanatory answers to aid further revision and study. A self-test resource for veterinary and animal science students that is also of interest to medical students interested in parasitology or zoonoses, this book provides a convenient, useful, and current source of information to anyone interested in learning, revising and assessing their knowledge in parasitology.

This volume details our current understanding of the architecture and signaling capabilities of known canonical and non-canonical inflammasome complexes and highlights their action, in particular in response to infection with important bacterial model organisms and the corresponding disease pathologies. The first chapters review new insights into the assembly and structures of inflammasome components and emphasize general strategies of up- and downstream signaling events. In addition, the authors specifically discuss the composition and activity of inflammasomes during infection with various gut pathogens (Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Listeria and Helicobacter), respiratory pathogens (Mycobacterium, Legionella, Burkholderia and Streptococcus) as well as skin and soft tissue pathogens (Francisella and Staphylococcus). The discoveries presented provide a better understanding of the cellular and molecular biology of inflammasomes, which will pinpoint important new therapeutic targets for the treatment and prevention of multiple infectious diseases in the future. It is a valuable resource for students, scientists and clinicians, providing up-to-date information on this emerging research topic.

Schistosomiasis is Africa's second most common parasitic disease. Less than 20 years ago, over 200 million were infected. In many high-risk areas the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) has been helping to tackle the disease by offering treatments to millions of children. This book tells the story of a man, Alan Fenwick, who founded the SCI to control the worms and snails and so improve the lives of many burdened with the disease as well as reducing the numbers infected. Over this period SCI and the Ministries of Health and Education in 16 countries delivered over 220 million treatments. Treatment coverage of up to 75% has been achieved. Widely recognised as a cost-effective and successful intervention, SCI's knock-on effects include improving overall physical health, school attendance and future prospects for millions of people. The authors explore the work and experiences involved in forming, establishing and managing a health intervention system such as the SCI, while describing important lessons for anyone looking to replicate the success. This book covers: - Challenges faced and how the SCI overcame them to achieve its success; - Raising funds to deliver donated medicines; - Development of innovative partnerships; - Cultivation of working relationships and implementation across Africa; - A new model for other Neglected Tropical Disease programmes (NTDs); - Aspects of Alan's life in Africa told with memorable and often humorous anecdotes. A Tale of a Man, a Worm and a Snail is an essential resource for researchers, policymakers, health professionals and students of NTD control. The book is an enlightening, informative and enjoyable read for anyone interested in global health.

This book addresses the major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – based on their prevalence and the years of healthy life lost to disability – in Latin American and Caribbean countries. These include Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, hookworm infection, and other soil-transmitted helminth infections, followed by dengue, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, leprosy, cysticercosis, bartonellosis, Plasmodium vivax malaria, and onchocerciasis. Topics like disease burden, major manifestations and approaches to the control and elimination of NTDs in Latin America and the Caribbean are discussed in detail. As such, the book will be of general interest to basic researchers and clinicians engaged in infectious disease, tropical medicine, and parasitology, and a must-have for scientists specialized in the characteristics of this region of the world.​

The book "Parasitic Zoonoses" emphasizes a veterinary and public health perspective of zoonotic parasites. This book is suitable for higher undergraduate and graduate students of zoonoses and public health, veterinary parasitology, parasite epidemiology; public health workers; public health veterinarians; field veterinarians, medical professionals and all others interested in the subject. More than 15 protozoa and 50 other parasitic diseases are zoonotic in nature and all these diseases have been discussed in detail. The first chapter is concerned with classification of zoonotic parasites, food borne, vector borne and occupation related zoonotic parasites. The remaining chapters cover etiology, epidemiology, life cycle, transmission, clinical signs, diagnosis, prevention and control of zoonotic parasites. The text is illustrated with a large number of coloured figures. An alphabetical bibliography for every disease has also been included so that readers have access to further information.

Helminth infections are common, cause considerable pathology, and alter a host's immune profile. This can have important consequences not only on the host's ability to control a helminth infection, but also on their ability to control unrelated infections. In endemic areas, understanding how helminth infection influences the outcome of common infectious diseases and changes the efficacy of childhood vaccination programs is an important public health question. This book reviews how host immunity to helminths alters our ability to respond to the major pathogens that exist in helminth endemic regions. Current understanding of how helminths alter important but relatively neglected contributors to the host's anti-helminth immune responses are addressed, namely host antibody responses and how maternal infection may alter a child's immune development. These are discussed in relation to the control of helminth infection and unrelated infections. Also covered are how helminth infections alter the host's ability to control TB, HIV and malarial infections along with neglected bacterial infections, such as cholera, and how endemic helminth infections are likely to alter our ability to respond to life-saving vaccination strategies.

This volume examines all facets of the complex biology of Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, which play an essential role in the pathophysiology of allergic diseases and immunity to parasites. It highlights the unique mechanisms involved in the regulation of IgE production at both the molecular and cellular level. Furthermore, it discusses in detail novel findings on how the affinity, specificity and cross-reactivity of IgE can fine-tune mast cell responses to allergens. The book also explores the beneficial roles of IgE antibodies in immunity to helminthes and protection against tumors, and how the properties of IgE-mediated immunity are employed in the development of IgE therapeutic antibodies. All chapters were written by respected experts in their fields and will appeal to scientists and clinicians alike.

Southeast Asia is a region where a myriad of infections are endemic. It is a hotspot region for parasitic diseases. Currently, information on parasitic infections and vectors found in Southeast Asia is sporadic and there has been no attempt to extensively collate and integrate these data. Gaps in our knowledge, which include disease patterns, transmission dynamics and vectors still exist. This book highlights parasitic diseases that are peculiar to Southeast Asia, pinpoints similarities and differences between disease patterns in the respective member countries and provide information on new emerging parasitic diseases in this region. Critically, this book will heighten understanding of parasitic diseases and their vectors in this diverse region and this knowledge will be significant for future regional research efforts in this field.

This volume provides in-depth reviews of model systems that exemplify the arms race in host-pathogen interactions. Somatic adaptations are responsible for the individualization of biological responses to the environment, and the continual struggle between host immune systems and invading pathogens has given rise to corresponding processes that produce molecular variation. Whether in mollusks or human beings, various host somatic mechanisms have evolved independently, providing responses to counter rapidly-changing pathogens. The pathways they utilize can include non-heritable changes involving RNA and post-translational modifications, or changes that produce somatic DNA recombination and mutation. For infectious organisms such as protozoans and flatworms, antigenic variation is central to their survival strategy. Evolving the ability to evade the host immune system not only increases their chances of survival but is also necessary for successful re-infection within the host population.

This book gathers contributions by 16 international authors on the phenomenon "bats," shedding some light on their morphology, the feeding behaviors (insects, fruits, blood) of different groups, their potential and confirmed transmissions of agents of diseases, their endo- and ectoparasites, as well as countless myths surrounding their lifestyle (e.g. vampirism, chupacabras, batman etc.). Bats have been known in different cultures for several thousand centuries, however their nocturnal activities have made them mysterious and led to many legends and myths, while proven facts remained scarce. Even today, our knowledge of bats remains limited compared to other groups in the animal kingdom. Also, their famous ability to avoid collisions with obstacles during their nightly flights with the help of a sophisticated and unique system using ultrasound waves (which are transmitted and received) is as poorly studied as birds finding their way from continent to continent. In recent times, where globalization transports millions of people and goods from one end of the earth to the other, there are increased risks posed by agents of diseases, as a result of which bats have received increasing attention as potential vectors. These suppositions are based on their proven transmission of viruses such as rabies. In dedicated chapters, the book addresses the following topics: * The world of bats * The astonishing morphology of bats * Bats as potential reservoir hosts for vector-borne diseases * Bat endoparasites * Macroparasites - ectoparasites * Glimpses into how bats fly * Blood-licking bats * Vampirism in medicine and culture * Chupacabras and "goat milkers" * Myths on candiru As such, this book provides a broad range of information for all non-experts interested in biological topics, but also for people working in this field, as well as physicians and veterinarians who are confronted with clinical cases, and for teachers and students interested in expanding their knowledge of biology and of past and present cultures.

This book describes the role of heat shock proteins in the life cycle of malaria parasites. The work includes a general introduction on the structural and functional features of heat shock proteins. The main focus is on the role of heat shock protein families from Plasmodium falciparum, their role in protein folding and in the development of malaria pathology. The functions of individual families of heat shock proteins from plasmodium species and their cooperation in functional networks is described. Subcellular and extracellular organelles such as the apicoplast and the Maurer's Clefts which are associated with plasmodium species, are discussed in detail. The role of heat shock proteins in the development and function of these organelles structures are highlighted. Although conceding that heat shock proteins may not be ideal antimalarial drug targets, prospects of targeting heat shock proteins in antimalarial drug discovery either directly and/or in combination therapies are explored.

Malaria remains an alarming emergency in developing countries. It is thus urgent to identify any parasite or host molecules that can serve as new affordable markers for early diagnosis of disease complications or as new targets for vector control. In this context, human and mosquito lysozymes are good candidate molecules, as their involvement in malaria has been recently reported by several independent groups. This book reviews the grounded knowledge on malaria etiology and physiopathology, as well as the current approaches for diagnosis, therapy, and vector control. In addition, the emerging evidence on the involvement of human and mosquito lysozymes in malaria from available experimental models and clinical studies is thoroughly discussed, as is the potential use of other antimicrobial peptides against malaria. Intriguingly, the contributors propose that old well-known molecules such as lysozymes might be used as new targets for cost-effective strategies to fight malaria.

One Health is an emerging concept that aims to bring together human, animal, and environmental health. Achieving harmonized approaches for disease detection and prevention is difficult because traditional boundaries of medical and veterinary practice must be crossed. In the 19th and early 20th centuries this was not the case-then researchers like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch and physicians like William Osler and Rudolph Virchow crossed the boundaries between animal and human health. More recently Calvin Schwabe revised the concept of One Medicine. This was critical for the advancement of the field of epidemiology, especially as applied to zoonotic diseases. The future of One Health is at a crossroads with a need to more clearly define its boundaries and demonstrate its benefits. Interestingly the greatest acceptance of One Health is seen in the developing world where it is having significant impacts on control of infectious diseases.

This book intensively examines the efficacy of plant-derived products that have been used for over a thousand years by practitioners of so-called Traditional Chinese Medicine in the light of recent chemotherapeuticals. The chapters were written by renowned Chinese medical researchers and are supplemented by results obtained in German antiparasitic research projects. Parasites and emerging diseases are a major threat of our time, which is characterized by an enormous increase in the size of the human population and by an unbelievably rapid globalization that has led to the daily transport of millions of humans and containers with goods from one end of the earth to the other. Furthermore the slow but constant global warming offers new opportunities for many agents of diseases to become established in new areas. Therefore it is essential that we develop precautions in order to avoid epidemics or even pandemics in overcrowded megacities or at the large-scale farm animal confinements that are needed to secure a steady flow of food in the crowded regions of the world. Of course intensive research in the field of chemotherapy since 1900 has produced unbelievable breakthroughs in therapies for formerly untreatable and thus deadly diseases. However, a large number of untreatable diseases remain, as well as a constantly growing number of agents of disease that have developed resistances to standard chemical compounds. As such, it is not only worthwhile but also vital to consider the enormous amounts of information that have been obtained by human "high cultures" in the past. Examples from the past (like quinine) or present (like artemisinin, a modern antimalarial drug) show that plant extracts may hold tremendous potential in the fight against parasites and/or against vector-transmitted agents of diseases.

This edited volume focuses on parasite-host relationships and the behavioral changes parasites may trigger in their hosts. Parasites have developed strategies which enhance their chances to find a host to survive inside its body and to become most easily transmitted to one another. Many of these parasites influence the host's behavior by various mechanisms, so that the rate of their transmissions to further hosts becomes considerably enhanced in comparison to that of non-influenced specimens of the same host species. A broad number of recent studies elucidate more and more examples in an extreme spectrum of host-parasite relationships, where successful transmission and /or survival of a parasite inside a host is based on parasite-derived behavioral manipulations of the hosts. In the literature, an increasing numbers of papers appear which prove that these behavioral alterations are based on complicated psychoimmunologic, neuropharmacologic and genomically steered mechanisms. Researchers working in parasitology or behavioral sciences will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

One Health is an emerging concept that aims to bring together human, animal, and environmental health. Achieving harmonized approaches for disease detection and prevention is difficult because traditional boundaries of medical and veterinary practice must be crossed. In the 19th and early 20th centuries this was not the case-then researchers like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch and physicians like William Osler and Rudolph Virchow crossed the boundaries between animal and human health. More recently Calvin Schwabe revised the concept of One Medicine. This was critical for the advancement of the field of epidemiology, especially as applied to zoonotic diseases. The future of One Health is at a crossroads with a need to more clearly define its boundaries and demonstrate its benefits. Interestingly the greatest acceptance of One Health is seen in the developing world where it is having significant impacts on control of infectious diseases.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is highly endemic for several neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including viral, bacterial, protozoan and helminth infections. This new volume covers the most prevalent NTDs found in about 22 MENA countries emphasizing the disease burden, clinical manifestations and control approaches. Each individual chapter deals with one specific disease and is written by a group of experts on that topic.

Corynebacterium diphtheriae is the classical etiological agent of diphtheria and the type strain of the genus Corynebacterium. While diphtheria of the respiratory tract became rare with the introduction of vaccination programs in industrialized countries, even today several thousand cases per year are reported to the World Health Organization. This shows that diphtheria is not completely eradicated and that reservoirs exist. The book summarizes the latest advances made in understanding C. diphtheriae and the closely related species Corynebacterium ulcerans and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. Topics addressed are genomics of toxigenic corynebacteria, host-pathogen-interaction, detection, surveillance and treatment as well as application aspects.

This new volume written by experts in the field of trypanosome research covers every aspect of trypanosome-vector-host biology. It is a must read for basic researchers working with trypanosomes and related organisms, infection and drug development as well as parasitology in a broader sense.

This book discusses recent developments in several laboratories studying leishmaniasis. Sequencing of the human genome, as well as of the leishmania genome, has led to significant advances in our understanding of host-immune responses against leishmania, and mechanisms of infection-induced pathology, which is responsible for morbidity and mortality. Pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis focuses on the latest basic research into leishmaniasis, but also addresses how advances in understanding can be applied to prevention, control and treatment of what the WHO has classified a neglected tropical disease.

This monograph presents complex data on Fascioloides magna from all aspects of its research (general information, distribution, spectrum of hosts) and summarizes the latest information on molecular structure of informative genes which were recently applied in resolving taxonomy and biogeography of this veterinary important parasite. The giant liver fluke, Fascioloides magna, is important liver parasite of free-living and domestic ruminants. Due to its biology, distribution, medical impact, and invasive character, this liver fluke attracts attention of wide spectrum of specialists - veterinary doctors, hunters and farmers, as well as scientists. The parasite utilizes wide range of free living and domestic ruminants as definitive hosts, with various pathological impacts ranging from moderate infections towards lethal effects. Fascioloides magna is of North American origin where it occurs in five enzootic regions. It was introduced to Europe along with its deer hosts in 19th century and it has established three permanent natural foci. The giant liver fluke represents an outstanding model for studying the origin, spatial distribution, migratory routs, and invasion processes of introduced species.

The type 2 immune response that develops during infectious disease has undergone major paradigm shifts in the last several years as new cell types and pathways have been identified. It is now clear that the type 2 immune response, characterized by elevations in specific cytokines, including IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, is associated with helminth infections in both humans and mice. This response is complex and includes effector functions that mediate resistance, contributing to expulsion and in some cases destruction, of the parasite. But just as importantly, the type 2 immune response can also mediate tolerance mechanisms, which can mitigate tissue injury as these large multicellular parasites transit through vital organs. The tolerance mechanisms include both tissue repair and immune regulatory effects. These latter aspects of the helminth-induced type 2 immune response are increasingly recognized as a potential resource that can be mined for the development of novel immunotherapies that may enhance wound healing, control of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and regulation of metabolic homeostasis. In this book, leading researchers in this exciting and dynamic field discuss the latest findings and emerging concepts, providing an intellectual framework that can be used as a basis for new discoveries and potentially new treatments for diseases associated with inflammation.

Digenetic trematodes constitute a major helminth group that parasitize humans and animals, and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The diseases caused by trematodes have been neglected for years, especially as compared with other parasitic diseases. However, the geographical limits and the populations at risk are currently expanding and changing in relation to factors such as growing international markets, improved transportation systems, and demographic changes. This has led to a growing international interest in trematode infections, although factors such as the difficulties entailed in the diagnosis, the complexity of human and agricultural practices, the lack of assessments of the economic costs or the limited number of effective drugs are preventing the development of control measures of these diseases in humans and livestock. In-depth studies are needed to clarify the current epidemiology of these helminth infections and to identify new and specific targets for both effective diagnosis and treatments. The main goal of this book is to present the major trematodes and their corresponding diseases in the framework of modern parasitology, considering matters such as the application of novel techniques and analysis of data in the context of host-parasite interactions and to show applications of new techniques and concepts for the studies on digenetic trematodes. This is an ideal book for parasitologists, microbiologists, zoologists, immunologists, professional of public health workers, clinicians and graduate and post-graduate students.