Question

Are protists infectious?

Answer 1

Protists:

1. They are simple, unicellular eukaryotic organisms.
2. They are neither plants nor animals or fungi.
3. Mode of nutrition- autotrophs (prepare their own food), heterotrophs (obtain nutrition from other organisms), and some are decomposers (obtain nutrition from decaying matter).
4. Some of them can be infectious. They must cause an infection in their host in order to propagate and survive.

Examples of infectious protists:

1. Plasmodium causes malaria,
2. Trypanosoma brucei causes sleeping sickness,
3. Naegleria fowleri causes amoebic encephalitis.