Gastrointestinal nematodes and their management: a review

Abstract

Nematode parasites in humans are more prevalent in geographical areas where environmental factors and poor sanitary conditions favour the parasitism. Lesions in the intestine can be due to damage directly caused by the infectious pathogen, indirect pathology caused by toxic products, or the immune response incited by infections or ectopic parasitism.. The majority of the clinically important species of parasites involved in intestinal infection are reviewed in this paper. Parasites are discussed by the disease or infection they cause. Gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections affect 50% of the human population worldwide, and cause great morbidity as well as hundreds of thousands of deaths. Despite modern medical practices, the proportion of the population infected with GI nematodes is not falling. This is due to a number of factors, the most important being the lack of good healthcare, sanitation and health education in many developing countries. A relatively new problem is the development of resistance to the small number of drugs available to treat GI nematode infections.