Inventory

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Microorganisms have adapted to inhabit almost every corner of the world. Humans have several reasons to be interested in the study of microorganisms. Many microorganisms cause disease in humans. Parasites are one of those harmful agents that cause disease. Parasites are organisms that derive nourishment and protection from other living organisms known as hosts. They live on or in a host and get its food from or at the expense of its host. Many of these organisms can be transmitted by water, soil, or person-person contact.

Parasitic infections in children are an important public health issue, particularly in developing countries where social and economic deprivation, poor hygienic conditions and warm climates favor the spread of intestinal parasites. Worldwide, 3.5 billion people are affected by intestinal parasites, and 450 million people, mostly children, present clinical symptoms. Parasites lead to malabsorption and chronic blood loss in children, with long-term effects on their physical (height-weight) and cognitive development. Parasitic diseases represent a social and economic problem in developing countries. Malnutrition makes the children more vulnerable to intestinal parasites, which in turn leads to a poor nutritional status, creating a synergistic relation impairing growth (BalciYl et al., 2009).

Enterobius vermicularis, the pinworm of man, is probably the most cosmopolitan of all the helminthic parasites. Fortunately, it is relatively innocuous. It is, however, enough of a pathogen to cause irritating symptoms in a great number of those persons infected. The pinworm is about the length of a staple (ranges from 2 to 13mm [0.08 to 1/2 an inch]) and lives for the most part in the rectum of humans. While an infected person is asleep, female pinworms exit the intestines through the anus and deposit eggs on the skin around the anus. Within a few hours of being deposited on the skin around the...