[A historical reflect on the disciplinary development of human parasitology]

The authors, in this paper, has briefly looked back the developmental history of human parasitology, which, as an independent discipline, was established in late 19th century and early 20th century. In the process, it underwent an early height of development, then met with setback and relative decline. Since 70s-80s of last century, the introduction and application of new theory of modern biology, especially advanced biotechniques to parasitology has led to a striking development in many fields of the discipline, leading to deeper understanding of parasite-host interplay as well as providing new ideals and tools for disease control. The authors also stressed that nowadays the discipline is still relatively isolated from the mainstream of modern biologic research and is still neglected by scientific community and medical education in the world, though it still is one of the major problems in public health, particularly in developing world including China. To argue the currently neglected situation of parasitology, especially in medical education, the authors emphasized the continuing requirements for the discipline and reflected on the developmental strategy of parasitology to meet the coming challenges and opportunities for further development.