Infectious Diseases

Onchocerciasis, also called River Blindness, is the world's second leading blindness-causing infectious disease.

Symptoms

The symptoms of Onchocerciasis include:

• Intense inflammatory responses, which are triggered by the microfilariae, especially upon their death. (They live up to 2 years in the human host). The extent of the inflammatory response depends on the number of microfilariae in the human host.
• Blindness
• Hyperpigmentation and/or depigmentation of the skin, causing “lizard skin” and/or “leopard skin” appearances
• Inflammation
• Itching Skin
• Loss of skin elasticity, causing the skin to resemble tissue paper
• Loss of vision
• Skin plaques,
• Swelling

Malaria is a tropical infectious disease that is caused by protozoan parasites. It is one of the most common infectious diseases and it causes enormous public health problems, especially in tropical and subtropical regions of Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, over 500 million people are infected with Malaria world wide, and between one and three million people are killed. The majority Malaria deaths are young children in Africa.

Malaria is commonly associated with poverty, because poorer people are more likely to become infected. However, Malaria is also a cause of poverty because it hinders economic development. The same protozoan parasites that cause Malaria in humans can also infect birds, chimpanzees, monkeys, reptiles, and rodents. After Malaria was accidentally introduced to Hawaii by humans, it decimated the native birds of Hawaii because they had no natural resistance to the parasites.

Malaria Symptoms

The main symptoms of Malaria include:

Lymphatic Filariasis, or more simply Filariasis, is an infectious tropical disease that is caused by thread-like parasitic filarial worms, called Nematode Worms. Three types of worms cause the disease Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori.

These parasitic filarial worms are transmitted to humans by the bite of mosquitoes.

The disease is extremely rare in Western countries. However, in some tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America, the disease is endemic. It is believed that about 120 million people are infected world wide. In some areas of Indonesia, up to half of the population have the parasitic filarial worms in their blood.

Symptoms

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's Disease, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.

Leprosy is an ancient disease that has afflicted humans since before 300 BC. Recorded instances of Leprosy have been found in ancient texts from China, Egypt, and India, among others.

Contrary to popular belief, Leprosy does not cause body parts, such as fingers, toes, etc, to simply fall off.
Since ancient times, Leprosy has had a serious social stigma attached to it, where sufferers are treated as outcasts and believed to be "unclean" or "cursed by God", and this stigma still lingers in many areas of the world today. This stigma prevents many people from seeking help or treatment when they contract the disease. Instead, they hide away until their symptoms are so severe that their condition is finally discovered. By then, irrecoverable damage may have been caused.

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites, and is also known as Leichmaniosis and Leishmaniose, and was formerly called various other names including Baghdad Boils, Black Fever, Dum-Dum Fever, Espundia, Kala Azar, Orient Boils, and Sandfly Disease.

There are four main forms of Leishmaniasis:

• Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: the most common form of the disease, and where a skin ulcer forms at the bite site, which heals in a few months to a year, leaving an ugly scar. This form of the disease can progress to any of the other three forms, if left untreated.
• Diffuse Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: this form of the disease produces widespread skin ulcers which resemble leprosy and is particularly difficult to treat.
• Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis: commences with skin ulcers which spread causing widespread tissue damage, especially to the mouth and nose.