Free Republic

Organisms known as protozoa include a wide range of organisms, most of which are free-living single-celled eukaryotes. Therefore, protozoa fit into the Domain Eukarya. Although the different phyla of the kingdom Protista are not closely related, they are nonetheless classified together because of their large differences from the other kingdoms of plants, animals and fungi. The name “protozoa” has a dynamic history, at one time including only the “animal-like” unicellular forms of life. Today, these heterotrophic protozoa are lumped together with the autotrophic algae and other simple forms of life into the Kingdom Protista. While all protozoa are eukaryotes,...

Move over mosquitos. There's another blood-sucking biter Americans need to guard against because it can spread disease: the sand fly.Sand flies are tiny tan flies — about a quarter of the size of a mosquito — that live in warm, wet, rural and forested areas. In other parts of the world, they are known to transmit a parasite — a single-celled organism — that causes an infectious disease called leishmaniasis. They're most active at night, and they're so tiny they can slip through ordinary mosquito nets on tents or window screens. "Sometimes you don't even notice that you've been bitten,"...

An analysis of students in the US has found that those who have a certain type of brain parasite are more likely to be majoring in business studies. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite carried by cats. It can infect people through contact with cat faeces, poorly cooked meat, or contaminated water, and as many as one-third of the world’s population may be infected. The parasite doesn’t make us feel sick, but it forms cysts in the brain where it can remain for the rest of a person’s life. Some studies have linked infection with the parasite to slower reaction...

Gripe as we might, consumers understand that price increases do happen. What’s not as easily understood is how the price for something can go from $13.50 one day to $750 the next — especially when it’s a generic drug used to save lives. For decades, Daraprim (pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic used to treat malaria and toxoplasmosis, had been made by GlaxoSmithKline and sold for as little as $1/tablet until not that long ago. Then in 2010 GSK sold the drug to CorePharma, which began to raise the price. Within a year, revenue from Daraprim jumped nearly ten times even though the...