• Wei-June Chen.
• Department of Public Health and Parasitology, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Molecular Infectious Disease Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Electronic address: wjchen@mail.cgu.edu.tw.
• Biomed J. 2016 Apr 1; 39 (2): 93-7.

AbstractProtozoa and helminths are the two main groups that cause parasitic diseases with a broad spectrum of clinical symptoms. Protozoa are unicellular organisms like the malaria parasite Plasmodium, which is responsible for the majority of deaths associated with parasitic infections. Helminths are alternative parasites that can produce debilitating diseases in hosts, some of which result in chronic infections. The discovery of effective therapeutic drugs is the key to improving health in regions of poverty and poor sanitation where these parasites usually occur. It is very encouraging that the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Youyou Tu as well as William C. Campbell and Satoshi Õmura for their considerable contributions in discovering artemisinin and avermectin, respectively. Both drugs revolutionized therapies for filariasis and malaria, significantly reducing by large percentages their morbidity and mortality. Copyright © 2016 Chang Gung University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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