Page 15 - parasitology for medical and clinical laboratoryprofessionals

Preface

Parasitology for Medical and Clinical Laboratory tissues of the body. It is a textbook focused on provid-
Professionals is written in part to provide a beginning ing a foundation for understanding parasitology and the
course as an important component of the general and ho- relationships of certain clinical findings with a parasitic
listic training of laboratory technicians and technologists. infection. Blood counts with microscopic observations
With the homogenous society that is reflected today even of intracellular parasites, anemia associated with parasitic
in remote and sparsely populated regions of the country, infections, and increases in certain white blood cells, as
the well-trained and educated laboratory worker must well as the presence of blood antibodies, may all be uti-
be alert to the possibility that a parasite may be the root lized to provide a diagnosis of parasitic infection.
cause of a patient’s illness. Or a parasitic infection may
be a result of immunological changes through chronic
disease or treatment with antibiotics. It is not out of the INTENDED AUDIENCE
realm of possibility that a routine complete blood count
Parasitology for Medical and Clinical Laboratory
may provide the startling discovery by the laboratory
Professionals is designed to provide the primary
worker that a patient has a parasite typically found in the
knowledge and tools to all the medical or clinical
blood. The complete education of a laboratory profes-
laboratory workers, at the technician or technologist
sional provides an expert, a resource to the physician, level. With the continuing progression toward more
who is able to take into consideration a number of pos-
complex and technologically advanced laboratory
sibilities that might not be suspected during a physical medicine, the basics, such as staining of and identifying
examination.
parasites, will continue to be of importance, in both the
This book, entitled Parasitology for Medical and developed world and the lesser developed regions of the
Clinical Laboratory Professionals, provides the back-
earth. Continuing progression of diseases that adversely
ground and rationale for the elements involved in teaching affect the immune system, such as HIV infections, will
a section of microbiology that includes microorganisms
most likely increase the number of cases of parasitic in-
as well as organisms that may be viewed by the naked fection, as well as new diseases just being discovered or
eye. Parasites may range form one-celled organisms,
yet to be discovered.
some of which are similar to bacteria, to others that are
multicellular agents and may also be arthropods (insects)
or arachnids (mites). Some parasites must be transported WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN
and transmitted to a host by mollusks and insects, which
are called vectors. Parasites may be identified by find- This book was written to provide a broad scope of gen-
ing various stages of their unique life cycles, or they may eral knowledge related to the tremendous impact of
produce eggs that hatch organisms that infect organs and parasitic infection on human health and the quality of

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