A person who did not feel at ease or was uncomfortable and not well was said to be at a dis-ease. Nowadays of course when you talk about disease, we mean a particular discomfort caused by a dysfunction of some part of the body.
Some diseases attack very suddenly. We called these “acute diseases” (“acute” means “sharp”). These can be serious or not, but they usually make the patient feel quite ill. The acute disease ends with a patient either dying of the disease or recovering from it. Sometimes, a disease can continue for a long time. This is called a chronic disease (from ‘chronos’, meaning ‘time’). If an organ of the body is so damaged that it can no longer work well, we now call this ailment an “organic disease”.
Many organic diseases are caused by parasites which are small organisms that live within us and take nourishment from our systems. Parasites do damage to their hosts and are responsible for “parasitic diseases”. Some parasites, like worms, are big enough to be seen with the naked eye. In some parts of the world, people can easily pick up hookworms when they walk barefoot. These worms travel into the intestines and live on blood. This disease can easily weaken a person and some of them die.
On the other hand, some parasites as so small that they are cannot be seen without a microscope. Such parasites are called microorganisms or germs. They cost the “germ diseases”. Germs are carried in many ways from person-to-person, most especially when somebody coughs or sneezes. Sometimes they can get into our systems through food and drinking water. It is so easy for a sick person to communicate their disease to a healthy one. For this reason, such diseases are called “communicable diseases” or “infectious diseases”.
If the germs of a certain disease are easily spread from person to person, it is called a “contagious disease”. Germs come in many sizes and kinds. Relatively small germ cells are called protozoa and the most common “protozoan disease” is malaria. The malarial parasite lives in red blood cells and destroys them. Many people in the tropical parts the world suffer from malaria every year, which probably kills more people than any other disease.
Other germs are very simple plant cells called fungi or molds. Athlete’s foot is an example of a “fungus disease”.
Bacteria are even simpler than just germs. They are living things that can be seen only through an ordinary microscope. “Bacterial diseases” include tuberculosis, scarlet fever, tonsillitis and many other simple infections.
Finally, there are other germs too small to be seen under an ordinary microscope that they need to be checked under an electron microscope. These are the viruses that are responsible for the most familiar sicknesses like measles, chickenpox, mumps and the flu. These are also called “viral diseases”.
There are other types of diseases that are not caused by germs. In fact, disease can be brought on by any physical or chemical injury. Too much sun can bring sunburn or sunstroke. Some chemicals that enter the body can be poisonous. Sometimes a harmless substance becomes poisonous to a particular person. It makes a person sensitive to a substance in food, pollen, or even some medicine. He is said to suffer from an allergy, which is a form of disease.
People in some lines of work sometimes run into particular risks of poison or other chemical damage. Some people who work in the paint industry (because of their exposure to lead) may absorb dangerous chemicals into their bloodstream. Lead poisoning is an example of an “occupational disease”.
A person can also be sick because of what he has not taken into the body. Remember that the body requires a certain amount of good food and clean water to live. If the food or water lacks certain substances that the body requires, the body develops a “deficiency disease” like anemia (which is the lack of iron in the blood). In the absence of the necessary vitamins, diseases like crickets and scurvy develop. These are also known as “vitamin deficiency diseases”.
Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medicine
About the Author
Grand Challenges Canada Funds McGill University in the area of Neglected Tropical Diseases
Of Parasites in Humans
Can cats transmit parasites to humans?
I had a cat for several years, and I’m just wondering if it’s possible for a cat to transmit parasites to humans? If you come into close contact with your cat on a frequent basis, is it possible for you to end up getting parasites from your cat?
I think that the disease Toxo Plasmosis(sp?) is caused by a parasite, so that’s why I ask.
Yes, humans can get parasites from cats. Generally its from coming in contact with body waste or skin infections.
Toxoplasmosis – waste contact
Parasitic worms – waste contact
Ringworm and other skin fungus – skin contact
Cat Scratch disease – probably transmitted by fleas
…oh yes, there are the fleas
Shall I continue?
How to eliminate worms and parasites?
difference between parasitic diseases CAUSED by invertebrates and diseases TRANSMITTED by invertebrates?
i dont get the difference in the 2 questions
invertebrate: oyster
diseases transmitted by oyster: hepatitis A, vibrio vulnificus sepsis.
I.e. these are germs that are carried by the oyster, and transmitted to a human who eats the raw oyster.
Invertebrate: prawns
PARASITIC disease transmitted: angiostrongylus cantonensis (a roundworm that causes meningitis). You get the parasite by eating the prawn – usually in a salad.
Invertebrates that CAUSE parasitic disease: pick just about any parasite that exists – they are all invertebrates:
strongyloides (threadworm)
ascaris (roundworm)
tinea solium ( pork tapeworm)
countless other.
the difference here is that our invertebrate is actually the cause of the disease itself, not merely CARRYING a parasite that will cause disease.
Elephantiasis Afflicts 120 Million in Africa, Asia
would lyme disease be considered a parasitic worm?
or at least originate from one?
the reason why i ask is cuz…
Lyme disease is a bacterial illness caused by a bacterium called a “spirochete.”
and a spirochete is A microscopic bacterial organism in the Spirochaeta family. Spirochetes have a worm-like, spiral-shaped form, and wiggle vigorously when viewed under a microscope.
Spirochetes can be divided into 3 different genera: Treponema, Leptospira, and Borrelia.
Treponema pallidum causes syphilis.
Leptospira interrogans causes Weil’s disease
Borrelia burgdorferi causes Lyme disease
So what happens is the spirochete (which is a gram negative bacteria) lives in the white-footed mouse or the white-tailed deer then the Ixodes tick comes along and does it’s parasitic duties and picks up the B. burgdoferi from the reservoir and ends up biting humans and that’s how the B.burgdoferi bacteria gets transferred and causes Lyme disease in humans.
Under the microscope B.burgdoferi is a corkscrew or wormlike shaped organism and it wiggling, as far as it wiggling there are lots of things that wiggle under the microscope due to their flagella or endoflagella that allows certain organisms to move around.
Parasitic Diseases can be cured with natural remedies
