The first book in a series of four books concerning parasites.
Determining the time interval between exposure and the clinical onset of disease can be problematic for human and animal parasitic disease. As with any animal model, parasites have a life history that is unique and controlled by factors outside of the host. Some parasite infections may be contracted at any time of the year, depending on the life cycle and environmental conditions. Other infections are sporadic and may occur at any time, depending on the host environment. Humans are exposed to parasites primarily through ingestion of contaminated food and water. Other routes of exposure include contact with infected animals or parasites, inhalation of dust, aerosols or other materials containing parasites, and through the fecal-oral route.
Another consideration for parasite-host time intervals is that many parasites live in a host and then emerge at some later point in time. For example, cestodes, trematodes, and nematodes all have a complex life cycle. Most often, parasites reside within the host for an extended period of time before emerging, often at a later time. Another example of an emerging parasite is the tapeworm, *Echinococcus*, whose human host is asymptomatic for many years before the adult worms emerge. Such cases often mean that transmission occurs in a single event, for example, when a fox eats a fox-tapeworm infected sheep. Parasites that are rapidly shed in the stool and urine of infected hosts are referred to as fecal-oral parasites.
This book is an invaluable reference that is accessible to any practitioner. It can be used as a source for the clinician, whether the goal is to determine the correct diagnosis of the ailment in a patient, to choose a drug treatment or a potential host or for risk assessment and exposure control. Likewise, it can be used for training and certification purposes, including performance of parasite-specific diagnostic tests and descriptions of the techniques used to identify, prepare and mount parasites.
The first part of this book describes the life cycle of many of the parasites that can infect humans. These include *Cryptosporidium*, *Coccidiodes* spp. *Giardia*, *Entamoeba histolytica* and *Echinococcus*. Part II of the book describes the various techniques that can be used to identify these parasites. Part III, parasite recognition and morphologic classification, is a description of the various parasite types and their morphology as well as the major features that can
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