Unearthing an understudied disease vector in Delaware
In July 2023, a New Castle County resident was getting ready for bed when they pulled back their comforter and saw a large black and orange insect sitting on their pillow.
Jun 26, 2024
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In July 2023, a New Castle County resident was getting ready for bed when they pulled back their comforter and saw a large black and orange insect sitting on their pillow.
Jun 26, 2024
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A malaria drug could help immune-compromised people who can't shake off babesiosis, a tick-borne parasitic infection, a new study says.
Jun 5, 2024
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Anti-malaria drugs have been a central component of a global public health effort that saw a 44% drop in the deadly mosquito-borne disease from 2000 to 2019, but progress has stalled as the parasites that cause malaria gain ...
May 22, 2024
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Jyothi Nagajyothi, Ph.D. and her laboratory at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) have identified what may be the main mechanism for how chronic Chagas disease, a parasitic infection affecting ...
May 20, 2024
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Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr's health is in the spotlight again—this time relating to a neurological issue.
May 13, 2024
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign says a parasitic worm the presidential candidate contracted years ago while traveling outside of the United States ate a portion of his brain, then died.
May 10, 2024
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As much as we might not want to think about it, mucus is everywhere in our bodies. It coats our airways and our digestive systems and serves as a first line of defense against pathogens, a habitat for our microbiomes, and ...
May 7, 2024
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Malaria is caused by a single-celled parasite of the genus Plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted to humans most commonly through mosquito bites. The malaria parasites enter the bloodstream and travel to the liver. When ...
Apr 29, 2024
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Until three years ago nobody had developed a vaccine against any parasitic disease. Now there are two against malaria: the RTS,S and the R21 vaccines.
Apr 25, 2024
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When a small number of cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United States last year, it was a reminder that climate change is reviving or migrating the threat of some diseases. But across the African continent ...
Apr 25, 2024
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Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between two different organisms where one organism, the parasite, takes favor from the host, sometimes for a prolonged time. In general, parasites are much smaller than their hosts, show a high degree of specialization for their mode of life, and reproduce more quickly and in greater numbers than their hosts. Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and diverse animals such as tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and scabs. Parasitism is differentiated from parasitoidism, a relationship in which the host is always killed by the parasite such as moths, butterflies, ants, flies and others.
The harm and benefit in parasitic interactions concern the biological fitness of the organisms involved. Parasites reduce host fitness in many ways, ranging from general or specialized pathology (such as castration), impairment of secondary sex characteristics, to the modification of host behaviour. Parasites increase their fitness by exploiting hosts for food, habitat and dispersal.
Although the concept of parasitism applies unambiguously to many cases in nature, it is best considered part of a continuum of types of interactions between species, rather than an exclusive category. Particular interactions between species may satisfy some but not all parts of the definition. In many cases, it is difficult to demonstrate that the host is harmed. In others, there may be no apparent specialization on the part of the parasite, or the interaction between the organisms may be short-lived. In medicine, only eukaryotic organisms are considered parasites, with the exclusion of bacteria and viruses. Some branches of biology, however, regard members of these groups as parasitic.[citation needed]
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