Worm Infections Essay

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9/13/12 Helminthic Worm Infections Helminthic worm infections are also known as Nematode infection or parasitic worm infection. Parasites are creatures that invade a host, attach themselves externally and internally to tissues and organs, and rob the host of nutrients. They are classified into two groups; nematodes, known as the roundworm and platyhelminth, known as tapeworms and flukes. Some parasites, such as certain worms, eventually weaken and cause diseases in their hosts. Parasitic worms are common in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and are rarer in countries where sanitation is practiced. Worms or nematodes are long, naked, and boneless creatures that pass their young from eggs or cyst to larval or the newly hatched worm stage, maturing into worms in the tissues they infect, such as skin, muscle, lungs, or intestine (gut or digestive tract). Their eggs contaminate food, water, air, feces, pets and wild animals. And they are also found on toilet seats and door handles. Once inside the body, the eggs usually lodge in the bowel, where they hatch into worms. In terms of human pathology, both adult and larval helminthes may cause pathology and disease in a person. An important difference between infection with parasitic helminthes and infection with bacterial, viral or protozoan parasites is that in most cases, the parasites do not increase in numbers within their hosts). That is, each larval helminth that infects the host will give way to only one adult parasite. Parasitic helminthes may have either simple or complicated lifecycles. The adult parasites are usually found in the definitive host. This is where the parasite's sexual cycle usually takes place, with either cross or self-fertilization with hermaphroditic parasites, or sexual reproduction if the parasites have separate sexes, followed by production of eggs, or larvae. In many cases the

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