Diseases caused by Helminthes : Overview Types: Flat worms/ Platyhelminths Round Worms/ Nematodes

1. Diseases caused by Helminthes: • Overview • Types: • Flat worms/ Platyhelminths • Round Worms/ Nematodes • Different diseases cause: • Causative Agent/ Etiology • Mode of transmission/Epidemiology: • Signs and symptoms • Preventive measures • Treatment

2. Lymphatic Filariasis/Elephantiasis: • Causative Agent/ Etiology • It is caused by thread-like parasitic worms likeWuchereriaa bancrofti, Brugiamalayi, and B. Timori.all of which are transmitted by mosquitoes. • Mode of transmission/Epidemiology: • Transmitted by mosquitoes' bites like Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles species. • Signs and Symptoms: • enlargement of the arms, legs, or genitals to elephantoid size. • kidney damage

4. Preventive measures: • As with malaria, the most effective method of controlling the spread of W.bancrofti and B.malayi is to avoid mosquito bites • Sleep under a bed net • Wear long sleeves and trousers • Use mosquitoes repellent, especially at night. • Improved and proper sanitation and environmental management • Treatment: • Maintaining careful hygiene in the infected persons to reduce the incidence and spread of secondary infections • Anti-filariasis medicines like • Diethylcarbamazine (DEC) • reduces microfilariae concentrations • kills adult worms • Albendazole • kills adult worms • Ivermectin • kills the microfilariae produced by adult worms

5. Hookworms and diseases • Causative Agent/ Etiology • It is caused by roundworms Necatoramericanusand A duodenale. • Soil contaminated with human faeces. • Mode of transmission/Epidemiology • Hookworm transmission occurs by skin contact with infective third-stage larvae that have the ability to penetrate through the skin, mainly via hands, feet, arms, or legs. • Then larvae are carried through the veins to the heart and then to the lungs. They penetrate into the pulmonary alveoli, ascend the bronchial tree to the pharynx, and are swallowed. The larvae reach the small intestine, where they reside and mature into adults. Adult worms live in the lumen of the small intestine, where they attach to the intestinal wall with resultant blood loss by the host- Anemia.

6. Diseases cause by Hookworms: Hookworm disease are primarily referred to the iron-deficiency anaemia with reduced host haemoglobin. In children, chronic hookworm infection has been shown to impair physical and intellectual development, reduce school performance and attendance, and adversely affect future productivity and wage-earning potential.

8. Signs and symptoms: • Easy fatigue and loss of energy • Unusually rapid heart beat, particularly with exercise • Shortness of breath and headache, particularly with exercise • Difficulty concentrating • Dizziness • Pale skin • Leg cramps • Insomnia

9. Preventive measures: • Educational campaigns about the proper use of latrines • Sanitary disposal of human feces • Wearing any footwear may also be useful and helpful • Treatment: • Medications like albendazole, mebendazole, and pyrantelpamoate allare effective treatments • anti-hookworm vaccine have also used to killed the larvae in infective larvae in stage three.

10. Pinworms and diseases: • Causative Agent/ Etiology • Enterobiusvermicularis-roundworm. • Mode of transmission/Epidemiology • Egg transmission occurs by the fecal-oral route either directlyor indirectly via contaminated hands or fomites such as sharedtoys, bedding, clothing, toilet seats, and baths. • Signs and symptoms: