The enemy, as they say, "you need to know it by sight. "You must understand who we are dealing with. Illiteracy on this issue will not give any discount. Let's arm ourselves with information that can be used in practice, for the benefit of our health, that will not leave the slightest possibility that some parasites will spoil our precious life.
Parasites: who are they?
Parasites(from the Greek parasites - parasite, parasite) - lower plant and animal organisms that live outside or inside another organism (host) and feed on it. Parasites live their parallel lives inside our bodies, feeding on our energy, our cells, and our food, including the
health products we consume.
There are parasites that spend their entire lives in the host's body or only a part of it; they receive food and shelter from him, without causing any visible harm to the body of their host.
Some parasites irritate the host and affect its functions; others destroy host tissues and release specific toxins that cause poor health and the development of various diseases in the host.In the human bodythey can parasitize several species: fungi, bacteria, viruses, protozoa and worms.
Parasitesduring their life go through a complex development cycle: there are those that need to change several hosts, within which the parasite undergoes an intermediate development (the so-called larval stage of developmenthelminth worms). In the body of the last host, the helminth matures sexually and becomes as dangerous as possible.
Parasites are classified as follows:
- mushrooms
- virus
- the simplest parasites
- helminths (worms, worms)
- crustacean parasites
- arachnid parasites
- insects (mainly bloodsucking)
1. Mushrooms.
These aremicroorganismsthat infect the human body, they can settle both on the surface of the skin and on the mucous membrane of internal organs. Diseases caused by pathogenic fungi are calledmycoses. There ismycosis of the skin and nails(dermatomycosis), as well as mycoses of internal organs. Animals are also susceptible to the results of fungal activity: they can poison the body due to poisoning with fungal toxins that affect plant feeding (mycotoxicosis). There are different types of mycosis, some people only get sick or only animals, other types of people get infected from animals. Disease-causing fungi cause fungal diseases that are considered infectious diseases.
There are several hundredtypes of fungi, two of which are especially dangerous to humans. The first type of fungus,cryptococcus(Cryptococcus neoformans), causes meningitis (inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord). This cryptococcus is usually spread in bird feces and is found in fruits, vegetables, animal milk, and soil. The second type of fungus -candida(candida albicans) - causes diaper rash, candidiasis of the mucous membranes, balanitis, canker sores, fungal infections, onyxis (nail damage), lip sores, paronychia, athlete's foot (mycosis of the fingers), fungal diseases of the genitalia.Mushrooms love sweets, they feed mainly on sugar and starch, but like any living organism, they need amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
Mushroomsis a separate civilization, it is its own parallel world. They can withstand temperatures from -150 to +150 degrees, they cannot be frozen or destroyed. In scientific circles, there is an opinion that mushrooms are the main terrestrial civilization, and they use everything around them for their own purposes (and us, the people, included). Fungi are cheesy, odorless, white secretions from the nose, mouth, wound, urethra, etc.Fungiis a white coating on the tongue, baldness and dandruff, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis. If white deposits are deposited on the tonsils, then it is a fungal sore throat. Mushrooms do not hurt, they itch. Mushrooms are anything that comes off, exfoliates, falls off, cracks, rises above the skin, stains, covers the scalp. There is no acute stage of fungal diseases, there is only a chronic one.
2. Virus.
Virusesare non-cellular living creatures, they are microparticles that consist of nucleic acids - carriers of genetic information (RNA and / or DNA), covered on the outside with a protein membrane. Viruses are capable of infecting any living organism.Virus, translated from Latin (virus) is poison. Viruses cannot be attributed to animals or plants. They are very small and can only be studied with an electron microscope. Viruses can live and develop only in the cells of other organisms. Viruses cannot live outside the cells of living organisms and many of them in the external environment behave like chemical substances, presenting the form of crystals. By taking up residence inside the cells of animals and plants, viruses cause many dangerous diseases. Human viral diseases include:herpes, measles, influenza, HIV, hepatitis, polio, smallpox.
3. The simplest parasites.
Parasitic protozoa-amoeba, lamblia, toxoplasma, cryptosporidium, as well as plasmodia from malaria, leishmania, trypanosomes. Among the parasitic protozoa, the causative agents of the most dangerous diseases of animals and humans are known, especially in the tropics (Malaria, Dysentery). Plasmodium malaria infects human red blood cells, leading in the mass reproduction stage to attacks of severe fever, fraught with death. Flagellate trypanosomes and leishmania are mainly tropical species that, by feeding on animal tissues, cause ulcers, discomfort and in some cases death. Living in the intestine, the Entamoeba histolytica rhizome is the causative agent of chronic amoebic dysentery, which can penetrate other tissues and kill the host. The flagellated intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia causes severe diarrhea (giardiasis). This species is found in rivers and lakes contaminated by human excrement in tropical and subtropical regions. Some parasites, such as the pneumonia-causing species Pneumocystis carinii, are perhaps closer to fungi than to other protozoa.
4. Helminths (worms, worms)
More than 70 types ofworms have been recorded, of which the following types of helminths are more common:
- roundworms (nematodes)- roundworms, pinworms, whipworms, trichinella, toxocara;
- tapeworms (cestodes)- pig and bovine tapeworms, dwarf tapeworm, echinococcus, alveococcus, broad tapeworm;
- Flatworms (trematodes)- opisthorchiasis (feline trematode), liver fluke, Chinese fluke, lung fluke.
Some of these parasitic helminths are ubiquitous, while others are more common in certain areas. For example:
- pinworms and roundwormsare found in all parts of the world;
- whipworms: found everywhere, mainly in hot and humid regions of tropical, subtropical and temperate climates.
- Trichinella- in Belarus, Ukraine.
- pork tapeworm: registered everywhere, it is most often found in Belarus and Ukraine.
- tapeworm- found everywhere. Especially in Transcaucasia and Central Asia.
- dwarf tapeworm- occurs everywhere, especially in areas with hot, dry climates.
- Broad tapeworm- Usually chooses habitats in areas with a large number of freshwater bodies. Constantly present in the Baltic countries, Kazakhstan.
- opisthorchiasis(cat fluke): the most intense outbreaks are recorded in Kazakhstan.
- liver pain- ubiquitous. Outbreaks occur in Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and the Baltic.
- echinococcosis, alveococosis- in Moldova, in southern Ukraine, in the Caucasus.
There are more than a hundred and a half varieties of these parasites, but the most common are "only" about 35 species. Depending on the location of the parasites in the human body, these diseases are classified into tissues and luminal.
Tissue parasites.
If the parasites and their larvae are found in the tissues of the human body, in the subcutaneous tissue, they move freely through the circulatory or lymphatic system, this disease is called tissue disease (schistosomiasis, echinococcosis).
Translucent parasites.
If the parasites are located in the intestines or other internal cavities of the human body, then this disease is called luminal (tapeworms, roundworms).
Parasites are also distinguished by their specific location (habitat) on a person, such as their host.
External parasites.
This species parasitizes the skin of the human body directly from the outside, they do not live inside the host, but use it only during their feeding (mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, lice, horseflies, hornets, leeches). . .
Internal parasites (helminths, worms, bacteria, fungi).
This type of parasite has the following classification:
- Flatworms (trematodes), in their structure, bilaterally symmetrical parasitic or free-living organisms. The length of the trematodes varies from 0. 1 mm to several meters, the body structure is mostly flattened, oval or more or less elongated; in parasitic forms it is equipped with organs of attachment to the "host" in the form of suckers, proboscis, hooks, etc. Representatives of flatworms are turbellaria or ciliary worms; opisthorchiasis (cat fluke), planaria, liver fluke, clonorchus, fasciola, schistosoma, lung fluke.
- Roundworms (nematodes), free-living parasites of this class, live in fresh and salt water bodies, in the soil. In most cases their sizes are small, even microscopic, but among parasitic individuals there are also quite large ones, reaching a length of more than seven meters (cetacean helminths). The most common representatives of human parasite roundworms are roundworms, roundworms, roundworms, filaria, strongyloides, hookworms, trichinella, toxocara, rishta.
- Tapeworms (tapeworms, tapeworms),This category of helminths is distinguished by a characteristic long, ribbon-like body (from several fractions of a millimeter to tens of meters). Cestodes: worms with an elongated, ribbon-like body, consisting of a head, neck and individual segments, distinguished by enormous fertility (some species are capable of producing up to 600 million eggs per year): porcine and bovine tapeworms, dwarf tapeworms: cyclophilic detachment; echinococcus, alveococcus, broad tapeworm, sheep brain.
- Bacteriosis. Bacteriosis is an infectious disease caused by various types of bacteria and parasites.
Bacteriosis is a fairly widespread diagnosis throughout the world. Some bacteriosis are caused by bacteria of one type, others are caused by bacteria of several types. Representatives of this class of parasites are: leptospira, staphylococcus, streptococcus, shigella. - Mycosis: diseases caused by parasitic fungi. More than 350 species of pathogenic fungi have been identified, parasitizing on humans, domestic and wild animals, birds, insects, amphibians, fish and plants. The most famous pathogens of mycoses are candida, cryptococci, penicilliums.
- Protozoa or protozoan parasitesare unicellular organisms that have a heterotrophic type of nutrition, that is, they are not capable of producing the organic substances necessary for their vital activity from inorganic ones. The consequence of this is their need for organic substances produced by other organisms (amoeba, lamblia, coccidia, Trichomonas).
Sad facts about worms and other parasites:
- Chronic, incl. Oncological diseasesin 80% of cases are caused by the influence of parasites (worms, fungi, protozoa).
- The causative agent of opisthorchiasisbelongs to the first group of carcinogens (which cause cancer), according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
- The number one biological enemy for humans is Trichomonas.By forming colonies on the walls of blood vessels, Trichomonas leads to the development of atherosclerosis with all the consequences.
- 1989 - The property of Trichomonas to convert ordinary cells into malignant cells is discovered.
- Parasitic diseases in the worldaffect more than 4. 5 billion people, 9 out of 10 cases are worms, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Every third inhabitant of Europe is affected by parasites (including worms)!
The incidence of parasitosis in frequency is comparable to the incidence of influenza.
So there are several ways for parasites to enter the human body:
- Food - lack of personal hygiene(through contaminated food, water, dirty hands);
- Contact household: creation of external conditions for the active development of parasites(through household items, from infected relatives, pets);
- Communicable - without precautions(via blood-sucking insects);
- Percutaneous or active non-compliance with safety measures(in which the parasite larvae penetrate the skin or mucous membranes of the human body during contact with contaminated soil, when swimming in open water).