Foreword

Parasitology continues to be a very exciting and stimulating field of study and has regained global attention and interest especially due to the data obtained from the recent 2010 and 2013 Global Burden of Disease studies that highlight how parasitic infections continue to be amongst the leading causes for the highest disabilities worldwide. In addition, even though amazing strides have been achieved towards the Millennium Development Goals, the UN member states and the world are now faced with much broader and more audacious post-2015 goals as part of the new Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. For these objectives to be achieved it is very important not only to focus and monitor available and ongoing control implementation programs globally, but also complement these efforts with novel research leading to new and affordable health innovations.

Therefore, when Professor Fabrizio Bruschi invited me to write the foreword for this book titled “Frontiers in Parasitology: Water-borne Protozoa in Humans” it immediately captured my interest and excitement to know that with this book physicians, health professionals and scientists around the world will rapidly gain access to the most up to date advances and innovation about the epidemiology, pathobiology, laboratory and clinical diagnosis, and available prevention and treatment measures for this very important group of infectious and tropical diseases. It is well known that protozoan infections are important causes of diarrheal and other gastrointestinal diseases in humans including the major causes for travellers’ diarrhea. In addition, some of the protozoans can affect the central nervous system and even cause keratitis.

After reading this book the hope is that it will raise awareness of the importance of water-borne protozoan infections as global public health problems, while at the same time generate new ideas, new networks and partnerships and bring new translational discoveries from the bench into the clinic ultimately leading to an improvement in health delivery mechanisms benefiting global strategies.

Indeed, and of no surprise if one were to search for a good compilation of recent articles in the last 10 years that summarizes the global distribution and burden in this field of study, there are very limited publications that provide a comprehensive review of the global health impact of waterborne parasitic protozoan infections worldwide. Furthermore, for most if not all the water-borne diseases, effective drug treatments and vaccines are not yet available and diagnostic tools are not highly sensitive or reliable especially for point of care diagnostics in resource-poor settings. One of the most recent reviews on water-borne protozoa was written by Baldursson and Karanis and published in Water Research in 2011, and shows that in Australia, Europe and North America at least 199 outbreaks of these diseases occurred and were reported between 2004-2010. However, the authors also highlight that the countries that most likely have the greatest populations afflicted by water-borne parasitic infectious and other tropical diseases lack strong surveillance systems, leading to a chronic under-reporting or even no reporting of their public health burden.

This book, then, aims to fill this gap in knowledge as well as provide a comprehensive overview of major parasitic water-borne protozoan diseases. It includes an impressive list of authors and co-authors internationally recognized in the field of parasitology, covering in a compilation of 8 chapters the new and recent insights for waterborne-protozoa including Blastocystis, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Cystoisospora, Entamoeba and other pathogenic intestinal amoebae, free living amoebae, Giardia and Microsporidia.