Transmission and Infection

Abstract

Understanding how parasites are transmitted or how they spread from man to man is an essential part of any programme for the control of parasitic disease. Transmission is a term used to cover the events occurring from the departure of an organism from one host until contact is made with the next host. Infection is the means whereby a parasite becomes established and physiologically committed to dependence on the next host. The role of the host in transmission and in the infection process is often as important as that of the parasite. In practice, it is usually difficult to separate transmission from infection since the one leads into the other.