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Abstract
General ignorance coupled with a confusion of views, statistics and circumstances has long obscured the true perspective of protozoal diseases.
‘Protozoa cause one or two fairly rare diseases in plants, animals and men, but as far as we know they have relatively small impact on mankind compared with other microbes.’ J. R. Postgate, Microbes and Man (Penguin Books), 1977.
‘Throughout the world, there are approximately 150 million clinical cases (of malaria) annually. In tropical Africa alone, where malaria affects practically the entire population, it has been estimated that every year the disease causes the death of one million children under the age of 14 years.... Sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis) constitutes a permanent and serious risk to the health and wellbeing of at least 35 million people, and animal trypanosomiasis is the main obstacle to the development of the vast potential for livestock development in the (African) continent.... Millions of people on the American continents suffer and many die from Chagas’ disease, hampering socioeconomic development of the affected areas.’ World Health Organisation Documentation (TDR/WP 76.6 & 76.12) for the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, Geneva, 1976.
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