title: History of human parasitic diseases.
abstract: Humans are afflicted by a number of diseases caused by parasitic protozoa and helminth worms. The first records of these ancient associations come from studies on archeologic material and the writings of the Greek, Egyptian, and Roman empires but it was not until the theory of spontaneous generation had been disproved in the nineteenth century that it became possible to incriminate parasites in the etiologies of a number of diseases that had hitherto been enigmatic. The golden age of parasitology was the nineteenth century when most of the life cycles of parasites were accurately described for the first time. The history of parasitology is not yet complete and new diseases are still being discovered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK. frank.cox@lshtm.ac.uk
authors.forename: Francis E G
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D010272:Parasitic Diseases / Q000266:history* / Q000469:parasitology