Mansonella

A genus of filaria, widely distributed in tropical Africa and South America, that infects the peritoneal cavity, serous surfaces, or skin of humans and other primates with unsheathed microfilariae. The important human parasites M. perstans and M. streptocerca formerly were placed in the genera Dipetalonema, Acanthocheilonema, and Tetrapetalonema.

- M. demarquayi SYN: M. ozzardi.

- M. ozzardi a filarial parasite occurring in Yucatan, Panama, Colombia, northern Argentina, Guyana, French Guiana, and the islands of St. Vincent and Dominica, causing mansonelliasis; the microfilariae are not ensheathed, and there are no nuclei in the pointed tail; the life cycle is similar to that of Wuchereria bancrofti; humans are the only known definitive host, and the intermediate hosts are biting midges, Culicoides furens and possibly C. paraensis. SYN: M. demarquayi, M. tucumana.

- M. perstans the “persistent filaria,” a species widely prevalent in tropical Africa and northern South America where it infects human peritoneal and other body cavities, but is non- or mildly pathogenic; characteristic subperiodic microfilariae occur in peripheral blood. It is transmitted in Africa by the biting midges Culicoides austeni and C. grahami.

- M. streptocerca a filarial species in humans that produces nonperiodic sheathless microfilariae found in the circulating blood; may cause a lichenoid condition or edema of the skin; commonly found in the corium of the skin of west African residents and transmitted by the biting midge, Culicoides grahami.

- M. tucumana SYN: M. ozzardi.

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Man·son·el·la .man(t)-sə-'nel-ə n a genus of filarial worms of the superfamily Filarioidea including one (M. ozzardi) that is common and apparently nonpathogenic in human visceral fat and mesenteries in So. and Central America

Man·son 'man-sən Sir Patrick (1844-1922)

British parasitologist. Manson is remembered as the father of tropical medicine. In 1877 he was the first to prove the connection between insects and tropical disease: he demonstrated that culex mosquitoes are carriers of filaria larvae. He found filaria in individuals affected with elephantiasis. In 1894 he first put forth his mosquito-malaria hypothesis. His research helped Sir Ronald Ross to elucidate the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. The schistosome (Schistosoma mansoni) that causes schistosomiasis mansoni is but one of many pathogenic parasites that he discovered and whose life cycle he worked out.

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Man·son·el·la (man″sən-elґə) [Sir Patrick Manson] a genus of nematodes of the superfamily Filarioidea, characterized by a rounded, enlarged anterior end and a smooth cuticle, found in tropical areas of the Americas and Africa.