blood fluke

noun

1. a schistosome.

blood fluke

noun

1. any parasitic flatworm, such as a schistosome, that lives in the blood vessels of man and other vertebrates: class Digenea See also trematode

Word History and Origins

Origin of blood fluke¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

In the early 1980s, an oral drug, praziquantel, became available that could kill blood flukes in one dose with minimal side effects.

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But as much as a tapeworm or a blood fluke may disgust us, parasites are crucial to the world’s ecosystems.

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Gene drives could also be used to help wipe out schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease, carried by blood flukes, that affects hundreds of millions of people each year and kills as many as two hundred thousand.

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The life cycle of a blood fluke is daunting.

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Examples are the blood flukes, or schistosoma, that cause serious disease in man when they enter the body by way of drinking water or through the skin when people are bathing in infested waters.

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