MEDICAL BIOLOGY, HUMAN ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY - Ya.I.Fedoniuk 2010

BIOLOGY

CHAPTER 2. BIOGEOCENOTIC LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION OF LIFE AND THE PLACE OF HUMAN IN IT

2.4. MEDICAL HELMINTHOLOGY

Medical helminthology is a branch of medical parasitology that studies parasitic worms (helminths) of humans, the diseases they cause, and measures for their control. Diseases caused by helminths are called helminthiases. Helminths whose development requires an obligatory intermediate host are known as biohelminths (such as the cat Liver fluke and the beef tapeworm). Geohelminths develop without intermediate hosts (such as the roundworm and the whipworm). Soil is the most favorable environment for The Development of their eggs, which is why they are termed "geohelminths" (from the Greek geo meaning earth). The Classification of helminths into biohelminths and geohelminths was proposed by K.I. Skryabin and R.S. Shults (1931). Accordingly, helminthiases are subdivided into biohelminthiases and geohelminthiases. A person infested—that is, infected—with bio- or geohelminths is not directly contagious to others. However, there are a few helminths (such as the dwarf tapeworm and the pinworm) whose eggs can be transmitted directly from a sick person, primarily through egg-contaminated hands. On this basis, a group of contact helminthiases (hymenolepiasis, enterobiasis) is distinguished.

Human parasitic worms belong to two phyla: 1) Phylum Platyhelminthes (Flatworms) and 2) Phylum Nemathelminthes (Roundworms).