ABSTRACT
Parasitic diseases have been a scourge of mankind since antiquity. In developing areas of the world, malaria alone is estimated to cause more than 1.5 million deaths per year, and schistosomiasis another 500,000 (1). In the industrialized countries of North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, the implementation of public health measures, the availability of antiparasitic chemotherapy, and the development of generally high standards of personal hygiene have resulted in a progressive reduction in the incidence of serious parasitic diseases since the turn of the century. However, the 1980s have witnessed a reversal in this trend. The rapid spread of HIV infection and the use of immunosuppressive chemotherapy for organ transplantation and the treatment of neoplasms, collagen vascular disease, and other diseases have resulted in increasing numbers of immunocompromised persons who are susceptible to life-threatening opportunistic parasitic infections.
