Table
Human Diseases (Diseases Caused by Protozoans)
| Disease | Pathogen responsible | Habitat | Mode of Transmission and incubation period | Main symptoms of disease |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malaria | Plasmodium | Passes thorugh a developmental phase in liver resides inside RBCs and carried by blood to all organs | Transmitted to man by bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito. | Three stages : Cold stage, headache, shivering and rising temperature. Fever stage-fever rises to its maximum, srvere headache, pain in back and joints, vomiting; Sweating stage-profuse sweting, fall in temperature, pain relieved |
| Amoebic dysentery or Amoebiasis | Entamoeba histolytica | Large intestine | Transmitted from man to man through ingestion of cysts in drinking water, vegetables and food contaminated with faeces. | Acute dysentery with blood and mucous in stools, and severe abdonimal pain, Secondary complications include formation of multiple abscesses in liver, lung, brain, spleen and ulceration of skin, vagina and penis. |
| Sleeping sickness (Trypanosomiasis) | Trypanosoma gambiense | Reaches lumph nodes via lymphatics, blood and infests brain (cerebrum). | Transmitted by bite of testse fly | Fever, severe headache, enlargement of glands at back of neck, rash on the back and chest, joint pains, swelling of eyelids, ankles and hands, trembling, loss of appeti, no desire to work except sit or sleep, mental disturbances, coma and death. |
| Kala-azar or black sickness | Leishmania donovani | Reticuloen-dothelial cells | Man becomes infected by bite of sandfly | Enlargement of spleen, liver, fever, jaundice, skin become dark through pigmentation. |
