Introduction:
Parasitic disease, a public health issue, is a type of infectious disease that is caused by parasites which live on or in a host organism. In annual, millions of morbidities and mortality is caused by these infections which is one of the most devastating and prevalent infections.
It is a type of infectious disease caused by parasites such as protozoa, helminths, worms, arthropods, annelida, ectoparasites, flukes, and molluscs.
The high prevalence of parasitic diseases prevails in warm and humid areas of tropical, subtropical and temperate areas.
A number of laboratory techniques are used in combination to clinical symptoms, clinical history, travel history, and patient location to detect and diagnose parasite infections.
Clinical presentation in parasitic disease:
| Parasite | Clinical Presentations |
| Entamoeba histolytica | Solitary liver abscess |
| Paragonimus westermani (Japanese lung fluke or oriental lung fluke) | Endemic Haemoptysis |
| Schistosoma mansoni | Portal Hypertension |
| Schistosoma haematobium (urinary blood fluke) | Haematuria, bladder cancer |
| Trypanosoma cruzi | Dilated heart. Esophagus and colon (DCM, megaoesophagus, megacolon) |
| Enterobius vermicularis (Enterobiasis) | Perianal pruritus |
| Taenia solium (cysticercosis) | Cysts in brain, partial seizures |
| Echinococcus granulosus | Hepatic cysts (Hydatid disease) |
| Giardia lamblia | Watery Diarrhoea, bloating |
| Clonorchis sinensis (Chinese or oriental liver fluke) | Biliary tract diseases, Cholangiocarcinoma |
Parasitic Tests:
- Frenkel’s skin test (Frenkel’s toxoplasmin skin test)
- Xenodiagnosis
- Bachman’s intradermal test
- Fairleys test (An intradermal skin test for schistosomiasis and a test for pyelonephritis in paraplegia)
- Scotch tape, NIH swab test (A transparent adhesive (cellophane) tape test)
- Whiff test (A test for the fishy odour that occurs in bacterial vaginosis)
- Montenegro skin test
- Hair perforation test
- Immunochromatographic tests
- Casoni skin test
- Sabin-Feldman dye test
- Charcot Leyden crystals test in stool
- Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Test (IFAT)
- Polymerase Chain Reaction, Real-Time PCR (qPCR), Multiplex PCR
- Ultrasound, CT, MRI (Detection of cysts or lesions)