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https://www.arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/9795
PARASITES OR COHABITANTS: CRUEL OMNIPRESENT USURPERS OR CREATIVE “EMINENCES GRISES”?
Affilliation
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Biomorfologia Parasitária. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia. Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento. Instituto Nacional para Pesquisa Translacional em Saúde e Ambiente na Região Amazônica. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz.Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Patologia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz.Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Patologia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
Abstract
This paper presents many types of interplays between parasites and the host, showing the history of parasites, the effects of parasites
on the outcome of wars, invasions, migrations, and on the development of numerous regions of the globe, and the impact of
parasitic diseases on the society and on the course of human evolution. It also emphasizes the pressing need to change the look
at the parasitism phenomenon, proposing that the term “cohabitant” is more accurate than parasite, because every living being,
from bacteria to mammals, is a consortium of living beings in the pangenome. Even the term parasitology should be replaced by
cohabitology because there is no parasite alone and host alone: both together compose a new adaptive system: the parasitized-host
or the cohabitant-cohabited being. It also suggests switching the old paradigm based on attrition and destruction, to a new one
founded on adaptation and living together
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