Welcome to the Human Parasitic Disease module. The focus of this module is to study major parasitic infections in humans and to examine issues related to their epidemiology, control and prevention. The module will also enable you to formulate views on global factors that impinge on disease prevalence, availability of treatment, research into prevention and new methods of control.

We will cover six major parasitic infections of humans. These six are included in the WHO’s list of Communicable / Infectious Tropical Diseases. The timetabled lecture slot will provide you with a synopsis of the parasitic infection: diagnosis, progress of infection, symptoms and effect on physiology/ biochemistry, treatment, epidemiology and control/ prevention. Relevant recent research will also be discussed and you will be guided to sources of information to be used in your independent study. You may be asked to read material before coming to the lectures, in order to participate fully in discussions or activities. Please check your university email accounts on a regular basis, as module information will be disseminated through email in addition to during the lecture session.

Upon completion of this module you should be able to:

• Demonstrate a knowledge of Human parasitic infection that is research informed.
• Discuss, both verbally and in written form, aspects of the Biological Sciences and epidemiology of the major Human parasitic diseases.
• Demonstrate the acquisition of critical skills in the analysis and assessment of published work from other scientists.
• Demonstrate a level of independent learning as exhibited in the ability to research, collate and present relevant information on parasitic topics with the minimum of tutor or peer assistance.
• Formulate opinions, ideas and suggestions on the future threat to Humans from parasitic disease and the ways in which disease can be contained, controlled and alleviated.

This module is assessed via 100% coursework .

Assignment 1 (60%)  Essay
Write an essay from the list below. Your essay should be no more than 3000 words in length. The submission deadline is Friday 7th May 2004. Formative feedback is available on written essay plans. No formative feedback will be provided after Easter. This is because I shall be marking assessments.

Choose one essay from the following list:

1.    Describe in detail the strategies that parasites have evolved to avoid detection and removal by the human immune system. What are the implications of immune system evasion on human health?

2.    ‘Accurate and efficient diagnosis of parasitic infection is one of the major challenges facing parasitologists today’. Discuss this statement.

3.    ‘The highly integrated relationship between parasite and human host makes it unlikely for us ever to develop truly effective chemotherapy. The alternatives to control lie in other technologies’. Discuss this statement.

Criteria used in marking essay

• There should be clear, explicit structure and sequence to the essay appropriate to the topic.
• There should be obvious reference to the statement or question and evidence of an attempt to consider the argument.
• There should be appropriate use of primary sources of information and these should be referenced (Harvard system please).
• High marks will be awarded to those essays that are factually accurate, well structured and show evidence of understanding and insight as demonstrated by well-argued opinion.

Assignment 2 (40%) ‘Case History’ Test  (1h 30 min)

During the last session (Thursday 29th April 2004) you will sit the case history test. A case history in the context of this module is a short piece of information relating to a person presenting with a parasitic infection. You will be asked to answer questions relating to the following:

• The parasitic disease they are most likely to have
• The likely progress of that disease
• The treatment that should be applied

• The likely geographical location of the patient
• Probable features of their environment
• Other diseases that they may be at risk from
• Ways in which risk of infection can be minimised.
  

The total test time is 1-hour 30minutes. Will those students eligible for additional time or resources for tests, please let me know BEFORE the Easter break, so that I can make the necessary arrangements. Examples of case histories will be made available to you during the course, so that you can see the question structure and think about how you would answer the questions

The criteria to be used for assignment 2 will be the Level 3 Exam Criterion referencing scheme as outlined in your award handbooks (available on the web). In addition, the following specific criteria will also be used:

• Where appropriate, marks may be awarded to students for the description of their decision making (and the evidence used) even when the diagnosis may be incorrect
• High marks will be given to those answers that are correct and provide clear and explicit justification for their conclusions.
• High marks will be given to those answers which demonstrate evidence of additional reading on the topic
  

From me to you: I am happy to provide formative feedback on essay PLAN's (written or verbal) up to 11^th April. Important and useful notices and information are often presented at the beginning or during lectures so please ensure that you attend all sessions. I like to use email to contact students, both individually and as a module group. Please check your university email accounts on a regular basis for any notices.

From you to me: your views on all aspects of the course are very important and I shall be seeking your views via written questionnaire in the middle and end of the module. However, this does not preclude you speaking or writing (including email) to me to voice a view relating to course organisation, delivery and/or content. The staff-student liaison committee also enables your representatives to voice concerns (and praise) in an official forum. Make sure you know how your representatives are and when the meetings are held (watch the noticeboard).

There is no ONE recommended text for the course. The University library has several good standard texts in Parasitology, which you may have used during level 2. It also takes two important Parasitology journals (see below). To read about socio-economic and political issues relating to disease prevention and control, you will need to move into a wider range of sources - many of which are also available in the library and some are listed below. Please note that the list below is not designed to be a fully comprehensive list of resources and I would ask you to draw my attention to any other sources you may come across. It is my strong recommendation that, in parallel with the lecture topics, you endeavour to read recent articles describing current research on human infection. Suggestions will be made to you and single copies of seminal articles will be placed in the Learning Resource Centre, however, there is no doubt that the more you read and analyse, the more confident you will become in discussing (both orally and in written form) the nature of Human Parasitic Disease and incidentally performing better in assessment!

• Smyth, J.D. Introduction to Animal Parasitology. Third edition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42811-4 [Currently selling at £32.50]
• Cox, F.E.G. Modern Parasitology. 1994. Second Edition. Blackwell Scientific Publications. ISBN 0-632-02585-9. [Currently selling at £24.95]
• Schmidt,G.D. and Roberts, L.S. Foundations of Parasitology. Fifth edition. Wm.C.Brown Publishers. ISBN 007-116-8966. [Currently selling at £33.99]
• Cheng, T.C. General Parasitology. Academic Press [only available in hardback at £78].
• Periodicals: (all in library)

Keele University Library has a selection of Parasitology Books and journals - see on-line catalogue available through our library science team web pages.

Do not forget Internet resources as a useful source of research information and there are many. A good starting point is the list below but also look in Trends in Parasitology, which frequently reviews Internet sites, and discussion groups in Parasitology.

The World Health Organisation: www.who.int/

The Pasteur Institute: www.pastuer.fr/Bio/parasito/Parasites.html

The British Society for Parasitology: www.abdn.ac.uk/bsp/

The Centres for Disease Control (USA) www.cdc.gov/

The Karolinska Institute www.mic.ki.se/Diseases/c3.html

University of Queensland Image library www.life.sc.qut.edu.au/LIFESCI/darben.paramast.html

Atlas of medical Parasitology: http://www.cdfound.to.it/HTML/atlas.htm

David Gibson’s Parasitological URL’s http://www.diplectanum.dsl.pipex.com/purls/

The module descriptor (the formal description of the module) is available for viewing on the sciences server in the Biological Sciences documents folder. Due to the relatively large numbers of students choosing the module for 2003, I will not be running any small group tutorials as proposed in the descriptor. All sessions will be either lecture based or run in the IT suite utilising specialist software. Another important alteration from the module descriptor is the change in assessment weighting from 50:50 to 60:40. The increased weighting of the essay (from 50% to 60%) is to better reflect the amount of effort, particularly in preparation time, required to complete this assignment.

 

This page last updated on 26/01/2004