Parasitism: Definition, Meaning, Types, Examples, Advantages

What Is Parasitism?

Essentially, parasitism is a kind of symbiosis where one organism or organism’s part uses another organism, host, for his or their benefit, often existing on the host’s tissues or obtaining food from him. This interaction varies from being relatively innocuous to pathogenic and effectively may adversely affect the host’s physiology and her reproductive potential. To summarize, thus the study of parasitism is important for comprehending its effects on population health, and agriculture.

Latest: NEET 2024 Paper Analysis and Answer Key 

Don't Miss: Most scoring concepts for NEET | NEET papers with solutions

New: NEET Syllabus 2025 for Physics, Chemistry, Biology

NEET Important PYQ & Solutions: Physics | Chemistry | Biology

This Story also Contains

1. What Is Parasitism?
2. Types Of Parasitism
3. Human Parasitic Diseases
4. Recommended video on Parasitism

In the case of parasites, they can affect the social structure and demography of a population or even cause shifts in its behavioural patterns besides acting as agents of natural selection for the hosts. Also, they present formidable difficulties in medicine and veterinary sciences owing to their capacity to infiltrate beyond the immune system and adapt to drug therapies. Studying parasitic interactions expands our understanding of the co-evolutionary dynamics and helps in the designing of measures for disease management in various ecosystems.

Types Of Parasitism

The types of parasitism is described below-

Ectoparasitism

Ectoparasitism is defined as a type of parasitism where the parasite dwells on the outer skin of the host and feeds on the host's blood and/or tissues. Some of the examples of vectors are lice, ticks, and fleas. These parasites usually have a strong hold on the skin or feathers of the host and are potential disease vectors.

Endoparasitism

Endoparasitic means a parasite spends part of or the entirety of its life cycle, inside the host’s body. For instance, members include tapeworms that are found in the intestines and protozoa such as Giardia that infect the gut. Endoparasites are parasites which may live in the internal body organs of a host and part of their life cycle, may involve a change of hosts.

Brood Parasitism

To start with, brood parasitism is a kind of non-pairwise mutualism by which one species provides parental care for the young of another species as the latter lays eggs in the provider’s nest. Some such as cuckoos and cowbirds are known to lay eggs in the nests of other birds and then the hosts are brainwashed into taking care of the foreign eggs.

Social Parasitism

Social parasitism usually encompasses parasites that depend on the social behaviours of other species; especially insects such as ants and bees. Examples are parasitic ants that take over the host colony by manipulating it to act as workers for the ants’ young ones.

Human Parasitic Diseases

Overview of common human parasitic diseases

Malaria

• Symptoms: Malaise, fever, chills, inflammatory disorders, anaemia, and renal failure in the severe forms.

• Causes: Protozoan parasites belonging to the genus, Plasmodium which are transmitted through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

• Treatment: Prescribed drugs include chloroquine, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), and any other drugs depending on the local malaria-drug resistance.

Schistosomiasis

• Symptoms: He has experienced abdominal pain, diarrhoea, blood in urine or stool depending on the contemporary health status, and liver and spleen enlargement in chronic cases.

• Causes: Trematode, flavorms, also known as blood flukes sourced through contact with water containing the SSDs.

• Treatment: However, the main treatment for the illness is through the administration of mebendazole and praziquantel which aims at killing the adult worms.

Leishmaniasis

• Symptoms: Ulcero-nodular skin lesions (cutaneous), high fever, marked weight loss, toxicity which may involve an organ in the body (visceral).

• Causes: Protozoans of the kind Leishmania conveyed through infected sandfly vectors.

• Treatment: Antiparasitic drugs like antimonials miltefosine, amphotericin B and other drugs depending on the type of disease and its intensiveness.

Prevention And Control Measures

Vector Control: Insecticide-treated bed nets and walls and ceilings with insecticide sprays to ensure that no malaria-causing mosquito lays eggs in the room.

Sanitation: Getting close to water source and proper sanitation such as irrigation of water and working for improved drains to eradicate schistosomiasis.

Personal Protection: Cooper minute: Protective clothing and insect repellents to avoid contact with sandflies in a leishmaniasis-endemic zone.

Treatment Programs: Prescription of drugs to communities, monitoring, and treatment to control the spread of the diseases and contain the epidemics.

Recommended video on Parasitism