A MULTIMEDIA RELATIONAL DATABASE PROGRAM FOR PARASITE IDENTIFICATION

Parasites are responsible for human and animal diseases causing suffering and economic loss all over the world. Parasite identification is an important step in treating and combating parasitic diseases. This task can be assisted by computer programs. Until now computer based systems for parasite identification were fixed tree-decision programs which had no updating or expansion capacity and no ability for optimal searching algorithms. A new program was developed by using a multimedia relational database management system with a graphical environment. This program can incorporate expert knowledge in its relational structure and identify the parasites by using its structured query language. Also, the program has the ability for partial identification by presenting the parasites that match the available incomplete information. In addition, the program can handle images and sound to present pictures and relevant information on the identified parasites. The advantages of the new program are its friendly graphical user interface and its unlimited capacity to incorporate new knowledge.