Table 1. Pathogenic parasites with completed whole-genome sequences, their associated diseases and worldwide disease burden.

Parasite	Disease	Estimated worldwide cases of infection	Genome References
Plasmodium falciparum Plasmodium knowlesi Plasmodium vivax	malaria	3 billion [103], [126]	[127]–[130]
Toxoplasma gondii	toxoplasmosis	6–75% of population [131]	[132]
Cryptosporidium hominis Cryptosporidium muris Cryptosporidium parvum	cryptosporidiosis, diarrhoea	1–20% of population [131], [133]	[134]–[136]
Babesia bovis	babesiosis	humans: >500cattle: 400 million	[137]
Leishmania major Leishmania infantum Leishmania braziliensis	leishmaniasis	12 million [131]	[138]–[140]
Trypanosoma brucei	african trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)	500,000	[141]
Trypanosoma cruzi	Chagas' disease	10 million	[142]
Entamoeba histolytica	amoebiasis, dysentry	50 million [131]	[143]
Giardia intestinalis	giardiasis	280 million [144]	[145]–[148]
Trichomonas vaginalis	trichomoniasis	174 million [149]	[150]
Schistosoma mansoni	schistosomiasis (bilharzia)	200 million	[121]

World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en) and Center for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov) figures, in addition to the references cited, were used as sources of worldwide epidemiology.