Description

Helminths, parasitic worms, are the most common infectious agents of humans in developing countries producing a global disease burden that exceeds better-known conditions, including malaria and tuberculosis. However, despite the fact that helminthic diseases affect approximately one billion people in the world annually, they’ve been prominent among the so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) until recently.
In the recent years, helminthes have received unprecedented interest: New insights into fundamental helminth biology are accumulating through newly completed genome projects and the nascent application of transgenesis and RNA interference technologies. At the same time, the understanding of the dynamics of the transmission of helminths and the mechanisms of immune responses that are induced by infection with these parasitic worms has increased markedly. There has also been clearer understanding of pathophysiology and advances have been made in diagnostic skills and effective treatments. Prevention strategies have also been formulated against helminthic diseases. Unfortunately despite all these advances and interests, there is currently no locally available Helminthology book that is up-to-date, affordable and conforms to the requirements of graduate and postgraduate students especially in Kenya and East Africa in general.
The ultimate objective of this book is to provide the students with a comprehensive understanding of concepts in Helminthology: relationships between helminthes and hosts and between helminthes and the environment, the general epidemiological aspects of helminthes that affect humans, the socioeconomic factors affecting the transmission of helminthes, the life-cycle, infection, transmission, the diagnosis, treatment and preventive measures for specific helminthes.
All the chapters in this book are followed by the relevance of the described helminthes as diseases agents in Kenya. This will give the students a real picture of the significance of the helminthic diseases in their immediate environments. Each chapter is also followed by important review questions either in the form of essays, short questions and multiple choices to help the students test their understanding of the topics. Answers to the multiple choice questions and case studies are provided
It is highly believed that this text book will make a good reference for graduate and post graduate students taking courses in parasitology in the various degree programmes at the Universities. It’s also hoped that it will serve as a useful resource for teachers of parasitology.