Parasitologist Course

Parasitologist is the scholar of parasitology and all the pathologies connected to it. Parasitology is the biomedical discipline that deals with the study of the biological cycle of parasitic organisms of man and other animals, with implications of considerable importance in both the medical and veterinary fields, especially in relation to the diagnosis of parasitic diseases (microscopic examination of biological samples for the research and identification of the various vital forms of the parasite). These morbid conditions arise from the relationship of parasitism between the responsible organism and the host. In consideration of the sometimes very complex biological cycle of parasitic organisms, man can be interested both as an intermediate host (that is, he offers the environment for the asexual reproductive phase of the parasite as in Echinococcosis) and as the definitive host (in which the sexual reproductive phase takes place): this is the case of the tapeworm (only rarely can humans be an intermediate host of this cestode, in Cysticercosis ). In the context of human parasites we speak in a proper way of: - 'infestion' in the case of protozoan parasitosis, - 'infestation' in the case of parasitosis sustained by worms or arthropods. Parasitology plays an important role in Medicine due to the many infections-infestations whose etiological agents are represented by protozoa, helminths and arthropods, which carry out a part of their biological cycle in humans. Parasitology is a branch of biology, but due to its repercussions on human and animal health, most of the studies in this discipline fall within the sphere of medicine and veterinary medicine. There are also connections with epidemiology to study the frequency and distribution of parasites, with immunology to consider the body's immune response to parasites and with pharmacology to develop drugs to treat parasites.