Etiology Two major genera of hookworms, which are nematodes, or roundworms, infect humans. Necator americanus, the only representative of its genus, is a major anthropophilic hookworm and is the most common cause of human hookworm infection. Hookworms of the genus…
Intestinal nematode infections are caused by a group of helminths, sometimes referred to as soil-transmitted nematodes, soil-transmitted helminths, or geohelminths. They are among the most common parasitic infections in humans and affect more than one-seventh of the world’s population. In…
Although all infectious agents of humans are parasites, by convention, parasitic diseases are often defined as diseases caused by ectoparasites, parasites that live on the outside or within the skin of the host, and endoparasites, parasites that live on the…
Intestinal Nematodes More than 1 billion people are infected with intestinal nematodes worldwide. Also referred to as soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), intestinal nematodes are complex, nonsegmented, multicellular worms. Each organism is surrounded by a species-specific acellular cuticle composed of structural proteins,…