Many people are under the impression that parasitic diseases are found only in poor and developing countries. Something that people can only pick up when travelling abroad. But unfortunately, this is not entirely true, and parasitic diseases can also be caught in the United States, what is most dangerous of all is that they spread quite quickly and can affect millions of people in the country.

The uniqueness of such diseases lies in the fact that they often go unnoticed for a long time — symptoms do not manifest themselves to a large extent. Unfortunately, these diseases lead to serious consequences in the form of blindness, seizures, heart failure, or lead death. What is worth considering is that these diseases do not choose victims by race, or economic status, but all those minorities who are in poor regions, in disadvantaged conditions — in particular immigrants, are at greater risk.

Among the positive aspects of these diseases is that these diseases can be prevented and in most cases cured. Among the remaining cases, it simply happens that these infertile diseases are not noticed in time and, as a result, there is a difficulty in treatment or it becomes impossible to cure at all. Good question: why do they go unnoticed? There are two possible scenarios: the people themselves do not know that they have received an infection, or they cannot access proper care.

Seroprevalence of the Parasitic Diseases

As stated earlier, parasitic diseases are considered to be exotic, for this reason, suppliers of companies based in the United States are simply not familiar with specific parasitic infections and therefore difficult to diagnose.

Based on the analysis of some organisations that deal with infectious diseases, 5 diseases have been identified that require immediate attention from public health — they have the highest number of infected people, a high risk of mortality, and a low cure rate for these diseases.

Among them:

• Chagas disease

Chagas disease is endemic in 21 countries in the Americas and affects 6 million people. This disease accounts for about 30,000 new cases every year on average, as well as 12,000 deaths. And what is most unpleasant, 8,600 are already born sick as a result of infection during pregnancy.

• Neurocysticercosis

Special health communities estimate that there are about 1,000 new hospitalizations each year in the United States for this disease, neurocysticercosis.

• Toxocariasis

The overall seroprevalence of Toxocara infection was 5.14% latest from 2018 and may have remained or decreased today.

• Toxoplasmosis

The overall prevalence estimate for Toxoplasmosis infection was 11.5% in 2020.

Humans can be protected from the health threats of parasitic infection. To do this, special institutions are trying to raise awareness among doctors and the population of the country. It is also a good idea to introduce surveillance for increased levels of these diseases. At the same time, do not ignore existing data, synthesise them in order to better understand the nature and origin. It is important to maintain and improve diagnostic testing and provide advice to physicians on treatment — to provide drugs for special cases of parasitic infections that are not available in other cases.

Which Medications are Common to Use in the Case of Disease?

Due to the fact that in the United States it is believed that due to better nutrition, housing conditions, increased hygiene, and access to clean water, residents are less susceptible to diseases by ingested parasites. But as mentioned above, the case is still there and it is important to understand what medicines exist in the world for their timely treatment after consulting a doctor.

Antimalarial agents

The most common cause is the use in the US of antimalarial agents — against malaria control. The same drugs can be used for both prevention and direct treatment of malaria. The dosage for those residents who travel is usually 2 doses before leaving for a malaria endemic area, and after returning to take it within four weeks. But, for example, Atovaquone missed this exception, because it is more effective and needs to be taken only one week after arriving from a trip.

Ivermectin

This anti-parasite drug is one of the most used in the United States — mainly for the most common diseases of moderate and simple degrees. It is used not only for the treatment of systemic diseases such as intestinal strongyloidiasis or microfilariae but also for the indirect treatment of diseases such as scabies, and even enterobiasis. This drug is especially important in certain regions, such as the southern United States, where it is used to combat the so-called “river blindness” — onchocerciasis.

In Ivermectin, the action is slightly different from other drugs: it paralyses helmites, but also stimulates the hyperpolarization of the neurons of postsynaptic helmites, which are receptive in nature. This drug should not be given concomitantly with others that are GABAergic. An interesting characteristic: when taking ivermectin with highly fatty foods and food, in principle, it will increase the bioavailability in the patient. This is such a drug that it is enough to prescribe only once, but for example, in the case of filariasis, one dose will not cause remission, but only alleviate the symptoms.

Despite its versatility, this drug is still available to patients. On average, the sale price for Ivermectin will be about 123.66 US dollars for 20 tablets, which contain 3 mg each. Of course, it all depends on where you make the purchase, but you should always remember that you don’t always need to save money on medicines, and chasing cheaper ones may not always end well.

Metronidazole and tinidazole

They are usually used if a person is sick with symbiosis, trichomoniasis, or amoebiasis — this is the basis for the treatment of these diseases. Of the above, the most difficult case that is not treated with Metronidazole alone is not enough to get rid of the parasite that lives in the intestines. Therapy for this disease should include a luminal agent, which can actually affect the infection in the intestines. Such agents are iodoquinol and paromomycin, but this is the case if the disease is inside the intestine. In the reverse extraintestinal case, metronidazole is needed, as well as tinidazole. For example, metronidazole is usually prescribed at 750 mg for 3 single doses per day. There is an alternative — 500 mg is administered intravenously for 10 hours every 6 hours.