Parasitologists comment on parasite resistance to medications. Reading these comments is a nice confirmation because many people have experienced resistance and there is little information available on the resistance issue. One article below is primarily on animals, but relevant nonetheless.

I had worked with a doctor and had mentioned that I was experiencing resistance because the parasites weren’t dying! Feeling large movements and sharp knife-like jabs in the intestines was proof enough that there was a problem (there was little doubt that I was “delusional”). He, along with several other doctors, was completely unaware of resistance. All of them had been told that their pharm meds worked [of course, none had any real clinical experience in dealing with the problem because “parasites don’t exist” – right?]. This is where I'm having a problem with the parasite issue and physicians; there is a huge difference between book knowledge and applying real world experience - reality. Many of us have realized what the reality is in dealing with parasites! Again, carefully choosing a Good Protocol would be of great importance. This would require knowing what herbs and/or meds truly work, knowledge about your parasites, and other co-factors.

In reading the below comments, I’m now wondering how many parasitologist really do know what’s up, but haven’t informed the public at large. This goes back to my post on pharm meds and death stats.

One last comment…. It’s amazing how many worms cattle and dairy cows carry in their intestinal tract. Ick! Perhaps if the parasitologists worked on controlling parasites in animals (food source that people consumed) and parasites in household pets, maybe there would be less of a burden on the human population? Just a thought.

Best of Health!

DD

[My emphasis are in blue]

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 http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s697096.htm

What's bugging parasite scientists

Thursday, 10 October 2002
 

Australian parasitologists have warned Australia is exposed to high levels of risk from new outbreaks of parasitic diseases unless their professional numbers increase.

The Australian Society of Parasitology details their warning in a report called An Investment in Human and Animal Health: Parasitology in Australia published earlier this year. The society met last week in Hobart for its annual conference.

"The fact parasites continue to pose a threat is not due to lack of scientific effort. It’s due to the rise of drug resistance and the decline of our research and knowledge base", said one of the report's editors, parasitologist Professor Lesley Warner at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton.

Professor Warner says Australia is facing a critical shortage of parasitologists to cope with a myriad of parasites including worms, ticks, fleas, protozoans and lice.

She regards the ASP membership of about 300 people as a reasonable estimate of the number of active parasitologists in Australia, including researchers and post-graduate students.

But the majority of these, she says, are concentrated in New South Wales and Queensland, with fewer researchers based in the tropical regions.

"There are four parasitologists, for example, in the entire Northern Territory," she said.

Professor Warner also points out medical schools in Australia currently train almost no parasitologists, and the number of positions in veterinary parasitology has dropped to only six. With so few graduates, she is concerned the profession is getting older.

"As a taxonomist, I know of only 10 other people in Australia working on parasites, and we are all in our late 40s or beyond".

Australia's situation reflects what is occurring on a global scale. Taxonomists are an endangered species, with only about 3,000 people in the entire world working to survey, identify and describe all species, not just parasites. Yet it is estimated parasites comprise more than half of all species on the planet.

In Australia, parasites are a significant cost to agriculture, with annual losses from sheep blowfly, intestinal worms and nematodes amounting to over $1 billion annually. It is predicted the establishment of flesh-eating flies like screw worm in Australia would devastate the cattle industry.

Threats to public health from parasites include malaria, surra, viruses carried by mosquitoes and other biting insects, and protozoans like Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

Professor Warner warns climate change in Australia from global warming will bring new problems as the distribution of parasites change.
 

Mark Horstman - ABC Science on-line

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http://www.uark.edu/depts/agripub/Publications/Agnews/agnews02-4.html

In Parasite Research, It's What's Inside That Counts

By Fred Miller, Science Editor

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

Jan. 17, 2002

FAYETTEVILLE --- Tom Yazwinski devotes his time to creatures the rest of us would rather not think about --- the creepy, sometimes microscopic parasites that share our world.

"Our whole environment is full of parasites," he said. "And they're constantly developing resistance to the medicines we use to protect ourselves and our animals. The moment you begin using a new drug you start the clock ticking; you begin the process by which parasites develop resistance to it."

Bottles and jars full of pasty-colored worms of every size and shape clutter the University of Arkansas animal science lab where Yazwinski and research associate Chris Tucker conduct research on internal parasites for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

"Our primary efforts have been to study the incidence, epidemiology, importance and control of parasites in cattle, chickens and turkeys," he said. "We've also done some work with sheep, goats, horses, pigs, as well as dogs and cats."

Parasite control can be more difficult than controlling other health risks. Yazwinski said vaccines help an animal become immune to a virus, but many parasites evade the immune response. "Typically, when animals are treated for parasites, they're turned right back out into the same environment where they'll get infected again.

"The parasites in our animals represent only a small percentage of what's out there," he said. "The majority of parasites are in the environment, waiting their turns at the host."

The parasitic worms that Yazwinski spends most of his time studying cause serious health problems in agricultural and companion animals and have a significant financial impact for beef, dairy and poultry producers.

"We've shown that stocker cattle lose about a pound of gain per day because of parasites," Yazwinski said. "This is normal for animals that look good and healthy, but have 100,000 worms in their intestinal tracts. We've even seen dairy cows, which get most of their food brought to them in the barn, that have 110,000 worms."

Ostertagia is the most important worm that affects cattle, Yazwinski said, and cattle carry them in their stomachs. This is important because the stomach is where cattle digest protein.

"Worms routinely decrease feed efficiency by 10 percent in cattle, turkeys and chickens," he said. "They'll still put on weight, but it will take them longer and require more feed to do it. That comes out of the producer's pocket."

Lately, Yazwinski has been working on a protozoan parasite that threatens horses. The sarcocystis protozoa is carried in the intestines of opossums, which scatter it around pastures in their feces. Horses pick it up while grazing. It has not been shown to affect other grazing animals.

"Sarcocystis invades central nervous system tissue cells in horses, turning them into 'nurse cells' whose only function is to feed the protozoa," he said. "These cells lose their ability to function and a longe-standing infection will damage nerve function in the animal."

Researchers are trying to learn the cycle through which opossums pick up the parasite. Recent work indicates skunks may be involved. Yazwinski and Tucker are collecting skunk carcasses and sending tissue samples to researchers in Florida, where some of the tissue is used for microscopic study of the parasites' anatomy. Some of it is fed to clean opossums so scientists can learn the characteristic life stages of the parasite that are used for definite identification.

"Protozoa are a hotbed of research in both animal and human pathology," he said.

"I like to dabble across the board, it keeps the work interesting," Yazwinski said. "There are a lot of parasites out there. It's like job security."