Parasites Flashcards
Focus on the parasites mentioned in Flaherty's SAS
Which agent causes hydatid disease?
Echinococcus granulosus (Dog tapeworm)
Hydatid disease = cycstic echinococcosis
How is Leishmaniasis diagnosed?
Skin or bone marrow biopsy or culture
Note: Blood culture will be negative. In humans, Leishmania only has an amastigote form, found in cells and tissues
(does not have a trypomastigote form, which is found in blood)
Which two parasites cause elephantiasis?
- Wulchereria bancrofti*
- Brugia malayi*
What are the risk factors for Echinococcosis infection?
Contact with dog feces
What is the difference between an intermediate host and a definitive host of a parasite?
Intermediate = harbors the larval (asexual) stage of the parasite
Definitive = harbors the adult (sexual) stage of the parasite
Which of the following is a zoonotic infection?
A. Chagas disease
B. Cutaneous leishmaniasis
C. Amoebiasis
D. Trichomoniasis
A. Chagas disese
Other animals are hosts; humans are an incidental host
What are the clinical manifestations of Trypanosoma cruzi infection?
Chagas’ Disease
- Acute phase (high parasitemia)
- Periorbital edema (Romana’s sign)
- Fever
- Anorexia
- Hepatomegaly
- Lymphadenopathy
- Death (occasionally, mostly in infants)
- Chronic phase (undetectable parasitemia)
- Cardiomyopathy
- Megaesophagus
- Megacolon
- (everything is swollen)
Why might doxycycline be used to treat Wuchererica bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Onchocerca volvulus, but not Loa loa?
Wuchererica bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Onchocerca volvulus harbor Wolbachia bacteria
Doxycycline can kill Wolbachia to reduce the severe, damaging immune response that the bacteria has when it is released from its dying worm host
Loa loa do not harbor Wolbachia
Which filarial nematode cannot be infected by wolbachia?
Loa loa
(Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, Onchocerca volvulus cannot replicate without wolbachia endosymbiont)
Leishmania is in which protozoal group?
Which disease is it associated with?
Flagellates (hemoflagellate)
Leishmaniasis
How is Malayan filariasis transmitted to humans?
Which life cycle stages are present? Where?
Mosquitos transmit Brugia malayi larvae to humans
The adult worm lives in the lymphatic vessels and nodes
Sheathed microfilariae live in the bloodstream
(Causes elephantiasis)
This egg belongs to which helminth?

Schistosoma japonicum
No spine
List 4 filarial parasites
- Wuchereria bancrofti*
- Brugia malayi*
- Loa loa*
- Onchocerca volvulus*
Where is each Schistosoma species endemic?
- S. mansoni = Africa, Middle East, South America, Carribean
- S. japonicum = Far East
- S. haematobium = Africa (esp. Nile River Valley)
Ancylostoma duodenale is a…
Old world hookworm (intestinal nematode)
Which of the following is a human pathogen?
A. Iodamoeba butschlii
B. Entamoeba coli
C .Entamoeba dispar
D. Entamoeba histolytica
E. Dientamoeba fragilis
D. Entamoeba histolytica
What is Wolbachia?
Why is it significant to parasitic infection?
Wolbachia is a gram-negative, intracellular bacteria
The bacteria are endosymbionts of arthropods and some filarial nematodes; without the bacteria, the nematodes cannot reproduce. Contribute significantly to virulence
- Found in…
- Wuchereria bancrofti
- Brugia malayi
- Onchocerca volvulus
- Not found in…
- Loa loa
(like Rickettsiae)
Which component of our immune system is most important in fighting helminths?
Eosinophils: Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity
Which insect carries the parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness?
Which parasite?
Tsetse fly
Trypanosoma brucei
What is the correct sequence for malaria parasite development?
A. Merozoite→Trophozoite→Schizont→Sporozoite→Merozoite
B. Sporozoite→Merozoite→Trophozoite→Schizont→Merozoite
C. Trophozoite→Merozoite→Schizont→Sporozoite→Merozoite
B. Sporozoite→Merozoite→Trophozoite→Schizont→Merozoite
A patient’s blood sample is positive for Trypanosoma bruci.
Which form/stage of its lifecycle is the protozoa in?

Trypanosoma; this is the stage that is found in the blood
Failure to eradiate which tissue reservoir of hypnozoites following infection with P. vivax may result in resurgence of infection
What are the possible clinical presentations of infection by an Echinococcus spp?
Tissue infection
- Cystic hydatid disease/cystic echinococcosis
- Echinococcus granulosis
- Most common
- Cyst in liver (most common), lung, other organs
- Slow growing
- Usually asymptomatic (unless very large)
- Rupture may cause anaphylactic reaction
- Alveolar hydatid disease (rare)
- Echinococcus mutilocularis
What are the 3 major types of Leishmaniasis and their causative parasites?
Which organisms carry the parasite?
Leishmaniasis is caused by Leishmania spp, and the vector is the sandfly (phlebotamine)
- Visceral leishmaniasis
- L. donovani
- L. donovani chagasi
- Cutaneous leishmaniasis
- Old World
- L. major
- L. tropica
- L. ethiopia
- New World
- L. mexicana
- L. braziliensis
- Old World
- Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis
- L. braziliensis










