Newly Emerging Parasitic Threats for Human Health: National and International Trends

Parasites impair healthy life and development in hundreds of millions of individuals throughout the world. Various human populations are at serious risk of illness and even death from these pathogens. It should be taken into account that medically important parasites are not only those often infecting human hosts but also species that rarely colonize the human organism in the given region of the world. The latter can induce serious diseases or high mortality rates as they may be not correctly diagnosed or may be left untreated (e.g., dirofilariosis and malaria in Poland). Recently, reemerging parasites and newly emerging species (e.g., free living, facultative parasitic amoebae) have become an increasing worldwide public health problem connected with many mistakes and uncertainties in diagnosis; thus, there is a need for introduction of new diagnostic methods and successive advances in therapeutic management.