Question

Can protists cause disease?

Answer 1

Protists

1. These are organisms that belong to the kingdom Protista.
2. It includes free-living or colonial unicellular eukaryotes like euglena, paramecium, algae, amoeba etc.
3. They can be autotrophs like algae and diatoms or heterotrophs like paramecium and amoeba or saprotrophs like slime molds.
4. Some are also parasitic and pathogenic to animals.
5. Protists can cause diseases in humans and other animals.
6. Protozoa are a group of pathogenic protists that can cause serious illness.
7. It includes diseases like malaria caused by Plasmodium spp., sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma spp., dysentery caused by amoeba etc.