New Strategies in Parasitology

This book provides the record of a meeting in Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, England between 22-25th April 1989. The meeting was the second in an ongoing series on "Frontiers of Infectious Diseases", this year devoted to new stategies in parasitology. A group of 40 leading investigators, from both Europe and the USA, met for three days to summarise recent advances in their areas of research and to speculate about the future directions in the subject of parasitology. The topics chosen for inclusion in the parasitology meeting were selected as being areas of special interest and recent advances. Several presentations at the meeting discussed vaccine development. Castode vaccines have been developed for veterinary practice and the empirical approach has been highly successful within a short time frame. On the other hand a systematic logical approach is advocated for human parasites and this has inevitably yielded slow progress but great understanding of the mechanisms underlying host/parasite interactions. Animal models have been developed including a mouse model for cerebral malaria. The advent of the AIDS epidemic has given fresh relevance to parasitology and position papers presented current research on these oppportunites parasite infections. Several previosly rare organisms have become everyday words including pneumocystis and cryptosporidium. Animal models have been developed and `in vitro' life cycles established. In this rapidly changing field pneumocystis has become the commonest opportunistic infection in AIDS patients and is now regarded as a fungus; cryptosporidium is one of the commonest causes of diarrhoea in patients with HIV infection. Recent advances in immunology, molecular biology and pharmacology still need to be turned into effective products for the treatment and prevention of diseases that effects a large proportion of the population of the world. The strategies for the implementation of health were discussed. This meeting highlighted the developemnts in the science and clinical practice of parasitology.