A parasitic disease is an infectious disease caused or transmitted by a parasite. Many parasites do not cause diseases. Parasitic diseases can affect practically all living organisms, including plants and mammals. The study of parasitic diseases is called parasitology.
Some parasites like Toxoplasma gondii and Malaria can cause disease directly, but other organisms can cause disease by the toxins that they produce.
Read more about Parasitic Disease: Terminology, Causes, Symptoms, Effects, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the words parasitic and/or disease:
“It will always be found that one flourishing institution exists and battens on another mouldering one. The Present itself is parasitic to this extent.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“The peace loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality.... When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945)