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For medical scientists, biologists and geographers interest ed in geomedical problems the helminthiases can be a fas cinating object of research. Their distribution is due to the in part very complicated parasite life cycles which fre quently depend on the presence of intermediate hosts. The search for the causes of the distribution of helminthiases requires to take into account not only such geofactors as affect the parasite developmental stages outside man but go beyond this and include the entire web of factors which contribute to the conditions for the distribution of their in termediate hosts. Last, but by no means least, it is, however, man who through his customs and habits, his settlements and dwellings, his population density and, above all, his interference in the environment, determines the distri bution of helminthiases. The frequency, persistence and areal expansions are a consequence of the interplay and in teraction of all the geofactors. The aim of every geomedi cal analysis must be to prove the causes of their distri bution through a chain of causation which has no gaps. A classic example of such a chain had already been set out in the 1920s when Ernst Rodenwaldt investigated the occur rence of brugiasis in the Serajoe Delta on Java, and it is Rodenwaldt's analysis which has served as a model for this work. The idea of producing the monograph presented here arose from the Geomedical Monograph Series edited by Helmut 1. Jusatz.
List of contents
1 Introduction.- 1.1 The Climatic Regions of the Philippines.- 1.2 The Administrative Units, Regions and Provinces of the Philippines.- 2 Insect-Borne Helminthiases: Filariases.- 2.1 Short Historical Review.- 2.2 Wuchereriasis.- 2.3 Brugiasis.- 2.4 Control of Filariases.- 3 Water-Borne Helminthiases: Schistosomiasis (Bilharziasis).- 3.1 Historical Survey.- 3.2 Schistosoma japonicum and Its Biology.- 3.3 The Intermediate Host and Its Bionomics.- 3.4 Frequency of Schistosoma japonicum Infections.- 3.5 The Endemic Areas.- 3.6 Synopsis: Geofactors as Preconditions for Schistosomiasis Distribution in the Philippines.- 3.7 The Control of Schistosomiasis.- 4 Food-Borne Helminthiases.- 4.1 Intestinal Capillariasis.- 4.2 Angiostrongyliasis.- 4.3 Gnathostomiasis.- 4.4 Diphyllobothriiasis and Sparganosis.- 4.5 Taeniases and Cysticercosis.- 4.6 Echinostomiasis.- 4.7 Paragonimiasis.- 4.8 Other Food-Borne Helminthiases.- 4.9 Short Synopsis: The Distribution of Food-Borne Helminthiases.- 5 Soil-Transmitted Helminthiases.- 5.1 Short Historical Survey.- 5.2 Ascariasis.- 5.3 Trichuriasis.- 5.4 Ancylostomiasis.- 5.5 Strongyloidiasis.- 5.6 Enterobiasis.- 5.7 Other Rare Soil-Transmitted Helminthiases.- 5.8 Short Synopsis: Distribution of Soil-Transmitted Helminthiases.- 6 Conclusions - a Geomedical View.- Acknowledgements.- Appendices A-F.- Tables 1-40.- References.
