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A life without worms

Worms have co-evolved with humans over millions of years. To survive, they manipulate host systems by modulating immune responses so that they cause (in the majority of hosts) relatively subtle harm. Anthelminthic treatment has been promoted as a measure for averting worm specific pathology and to m...

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Autores principales: Sanya, Richard E., Nkurunungi, Gyaviira, Andia Biraro, Irene, Mpairwe, Harriet, Elliott, Alison M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5412073/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28340138
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/trstmh/trx010
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author Sanya, Richard E.
Nkurunungi, Gyaviira
Andia Biraro, Irene
Mpairwe, Harriet
Elliott, Alison M.
author_facet Sanya, Richard E.
Nkurunungi, Gyaviira
Andia Biraro, Irene
Mpairwe, Harriet
Elliott, Alison M.
author_sort Sanya, Richard E.
collection PubMed
description Worms have co-evolved with humans over millions of years. To survive, they manipulate host systems by modulating immune responses so that they cause (in the majority of hosts) relatively subtle harm. Anthelminthic treatment has been promoted as a measure for averting worm specific pathology and to mitigate subtle morbidities which may include effects on anaemia, growth, cognitive function and economic activity. With our changing environment marked by rapid population growth, urbanisation, better hygiene practices and anthelminthic treatment, there has been a decline in worm infections and other infectious diseases and a rise in non-communicable diseases such as allergy, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This review reflects upon our age-old interaction with worms, and the broader ramifications of life without worms for vaccine responses and susceptibility to other infections, and for allergy-related and metabolic disease. We touch upon the controversy around the benefits of mass drug administration for the more-subtle morbidities that have been associated with worm infections and then focus our attention on broader, additional aspects of life without worms, which may be either beneficial or detrimental.
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spelling pubmed-54120732017-05-05 A life without worms Sanya, Richard E. Nkurunungi, Gyaviira Andia Biraro, Irene Mpairwe, Harriet Elliott, Alison M. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg Review Worms have co-evolved with humans over millions of years. To survive, they manipulate host systems by modulating immune responses so that they cause (in the majority of hosts) relatively subtle harm. Anthelminthic treatment has been promoted as a measure for averting worm specific pathology and to mitigate subtle morbidities which may include effects on anaemia, growth, cognitive function and economic activity. With our changing environment marked by rapid population growth, urbanisation, better hygiene practices and anthelminthic treatment, there has been a decline in worm infections and other infectious diseases and a rise in non-communicable diseases such as allergy, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This review reflects upon our age-old interaction with worms, and the broader ramifications of life without worms for vaccine responses and susceptibility to other infections, and for allergy-related and metabolic disease. We touch upon the controversy around the benefits of mass drug administration for the more-subtle morbidities that have been associated with worm infections and then focus our attention on broader, additional aspects of life without worms, which may be either beneficial or detrimental. Oxford University Press 2017-01 2017-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5412073/ /pubmed/28340138 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/trstmh/trx010 Text en © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Sanya, Richard E.
Nkurunungi, Gyaviira
Andia Biraro, Irene
Mpairwe, Harriet
Elliott, Alison M.
A life without worms
title A life without worms
title_full A life without worms
title_fullStr A life without worms
title_full_unstemmed A life without worms
title_short A life without worms
title_sort life without worms
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5412073/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28340138
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/trstmh/trx010
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