Molecular Diagnosis of Vector-Borne Parasitic Diseases

Parasitic diseases represent one of the most important issues in public health. More than 20 million people are infected by diseasecausing parasites. Parasites represent a broad group of eukaryotic organisms that can cause severe disease in human populations, including malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, Schistosomiasis and Filariasis. Closely related to these parasitic diseases are geographic, social and economic factors that modulate the prevalence and incidence of these pathologies [1]. The use of technologies based on molecular biology has allowed the scientific community to unravel the disease determinants and the genetic structures of some parasites that provoke disease and cause millions of deaths each year.