Schistosomiasis
(also known as bilharzia or ‘snail fever’) is
a parasitic disease of significant medical and veterinary
importance. The main forms of human schistosomiasis are caused
by five species of the flatworms, or blood flukes, known
as schistosomes: Schistosoma haematobium, S.
mansoni, S. japonicum, S. mekongi and S.
intercalatum. Schistosomiasis infects more than 200
million people worldwide resulting in severe morbidity and
mortality. Schistosomes have complex life cycles involving
specific freshwater snail species as intermediate hosts.
In Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen the flukes use a freshwater
snail, Bulinus wrighti, as an intermediate host.
The Commission acted to ensure that the well-known name for
this snail was preserved, so assisting researchers who are
working to control schistosomiasis in these countries. [2001]
Isosporosis
is a form of the disease coccidiosis that occurs in humans
and other animals. The generic name Isospora is
in wide use for the protozoa that cause it. The Commission
was asked on behalf of the medical and veterinary professions
to stabilise usage of the name by designation of Isospora
suis (a parasite of pigs) as the type species that
defines the genus. However, protistologists discussed this
and alternative proposals at the 10th International Congress
of Parasitology (Canada, 2002), and recommended in a recent
comment published in the Bulletin that the Commission should
not rule on this proposal until further discussions and
research, currently being undertaken, have reached a conclusion.
[2004]
The
Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences
(CIOMS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) published
five volumes of the International Nomenclature of Diseases
to facilitate communication between health workers throughout
the world by providing a truly international language of
diseases; a single recommended name was provided for every
morbid entity. The Commission was contracted to verify
the nomenclatural status of the 920 parasites listed in
the volume on parasitic diseases. Arising from this action,
the Commission Secretariat prepared and published, in the
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, proposals to stabilise
the following important parasitic names: Hymenolepis, Echinococcus and Anoplocephala (Cestoda); Rhabditis (Nematoda); Trichomonas and Trypanosoma
brucei (Protozoa). [1987]
Mosquitoes
are one of the most efficient vectors for human pathogens,
probably responsible for transmitting more than 100 of
them, causing a range of diseases, with malaria, dengue
and yellow fever being the illnesses most associated with
them. Malaria is found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical
regions of the world and causes more than 300 million acute
illnesses and at least one million deaths annually. There
are estimated to be at least 200,000 cases of yellow fever,
with 30,000 deaths per year. The Commission has ruled on
a number of cases involving mosquitoes to stabilise the
nomenclature of these important disease vectors, including:
the subfamily name Anophelinae; the generic name Anopheles (vectors
of the four types of human malaria); the specific name Aedes
aegypti (the primary vector of dengue and yellow fever);
and many specific names within the genus Culex.
[1959-1994]
Dermacentor andersoni
photo
credit: © Natural History Museum, London
Ticks
(Acari) are important vectors of potentially debilitating
and life-threatening diseases. There are more than 800 species
of these obligate blood-sucking organisms. Diseases carried
by ticks are transmissible between animals and humans (zoonotic
diseases). Ticks can carry a remarkable array of pathogens
including bacteria, spirochetes, rickettsia, protozoa, viruses
and nematodes. The diseases these pathogens cause include
babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularaemia,
tick paralysis, tick typhus and Lyme’s disease. Three
genera of ticks are of significant medical and veterinary
importance: Dermacentor, Ixodes (species
of this genus transmit Lyme’s disease) and Rhipicephalus.
The Commission has ruled to stabilise the nomenclature of
these genera and of species within them, including: D.
andersoni (vector of Rickettsia rickettsia), I.
angustus, I. woodi and R. sanguineus (vector
for a wide range of infectious agents). [1922-1991]
