A review of an emerging waterborne medical important parasitic protozoan

抄録

Water borne parasites are ubiquitous protozoan pathogens that affect humans, domestic animals and wildlife throughout the world. From a water perspective, several protozoan parasites are important but till now mostly Giardia and Cryptosporidium have been highlighted as significant waterborne parasitic pathogens. For many years WHO took under consideration the intestinal protozoa and Giardiasis and Cryptosporidiosis are already included into the “Neglected Diseases Initiative”. At least 325 water associated outbreaks of parasitic protozoan diseases have been reported worldwide. Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum account for the majority of the outbreaks, since Entamoeba histolytica, Cyclospora cayetanensis, Toxoplasma gondii, Isospora belli, Blastocystis hominis, Balantidium coli, Microsporidia, Acanthamoeba and Naegleria fowleri were responsible for only a small part of the reported outbreaks. This review is intended to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding these medically important parasites, to present results on their prevalence in water supplies and to stimulate research questions on different aspects of their developmental biology and water transmission.