Current Status of Parasitic Infections
Parasitic diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, filariasis, and different helminthes infections have remained as serious health problems in different regions of the world. Developing and least developed countries of Asia, Africa, and South American regions are most vulnerable with significant morbidity and mortality. According to recent reports, malaria caused by protozoan parasite Plasmodium spp. affects more than 225 million people with 3 billion people at risk of infection and approximately 700 thousand deaths annually (WHO 2012; Lynch et al. 2012). Plasmodium falciparum is the most common causative agent (WHO-TDR 2013). Similarly, leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania spp. (L. donovani, L. major, L. mexicana, and L. braziliensis) is endemic in 98 countries of five continents with 350 million people at risk of infection and estimated 0.2–0.4 million new cases of VL and 0.7–1.2 million new cases of CL occurring annually. Over...
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Alvar J, Vélez ID, Bern C, Herrero M, Desjeux P et al (2012) Leishmaniasis worldwide and global estimates of its incidence. PLoS One 7:e35671
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Singh, N., Dube, A. (2015). Reporter Genes in Parasites. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3511-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3511-1
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