Scary Parasites Inside Human Body

Parasitism is a present or existing on both sides relationship between different species of organism where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host. These parasites are now known as macroparasites typically, protozoa and helminths, also refers to microparasites, which are smaller, such as bacteria and viruses which can directly be transmitted between hosts of the same species. Parasitism examples include interactions between hosts of vertebrate and diverse animals such as tapeworms, flukes, fleas and the Plasmodium species. Parasitism is mark differently from the parasitoid relationship and the fact that it generally kill their hosts. Parasites living on the host’s surface are called ectoparasites, examples mites, and those parasites living inside the host are called endoparasites which includes all kinds of parasitic worms. Protozoan infections classified formerly in the Protozoa Kingdom, are parasitic diseases organisms, which includes classified organisms in Amoebozoa, Excavata and Chromalveolata, and some examples are  Entamoeba histolytica, Plasmodium (some of which causes malaria), and Giardia lamblia, Trypanosoma brucei, transmitted by the tsetse fly causing African sleeping sickness. Parasitic worms, referred often to as helminths are a division of eukaryotic parasites, which are worm-like organisms that lives inside their hosts for feeding and receiving “nourishment” and protection while their hosts nutrient absorption (one way by which parasites can enter the body through the skin) to cause disorder causing their hosts diseases, weakness and deteriorating health. Intestinal parasites are parasites that live inside the host’s digestive tract.They can live inside humans and other animals. I am an avid viewer of Monster Inside Me, and gather some of their episodes to warn other people to be careful from insect bites, contaminated foods and should be aware of clean living and clean environments.

1) Baylisascaris:  A baby boy gets infected with baylisascaris worms that cause him to sleep excessively and lose his balance and vision.

Baylisascaris is a genus of roundworms infesting more than fifty animal species, which the Baylisascaris eggs are passed into the animal feces and become active within a month. Common signs and symptoms to infected human, when the larva enter within the skin are, skin irritations, respiratory discomfort, liver enlargement, and fever because of reaction from larva migration into the skin. Sometimes the random migration of the larva damage the eye and brain tissues, which cause nausea a lethargic feeling, loss of vision and feeling of disoriented, severe neurological signs such as imbalance, circling and abnormal behavior,due to extensive damage of tissue due to migration of larva through the brain, eventually causing seizures and coma. Disease preventions: After contact with animal feces, a careful procedure of decontaminations need to be performed. Baylisascaris eggs can enter the digestive tract of a person who, for example, cleaned and removes dung from his property and then eats without washing thoroughly his hands. Rats and skunks droppings are a known vector, which their feces may deposit the eggs into the carpets and home interiors. Using bleach can prevent the eggs from sticking, but destruction is not ensure. Children are prone to be infected than adults because of their tendency towards pica or eating dirt called geophagy. There are no treatment shown to alleviate illness caused by migrating larva, but one can get rid of adult Baylisascaris while worming. Albendazole 20 to 40 mg/kg/d for 1 to 4 weeks treatment, and has been used to treat many cases of worm infections, despite lack of larvicidal effects.

2) Wuchereria Bancrofti: A veteran in the Vietnam war deals with wuchereria bancrofti that causes swelling and leaking from his leg.

Wuchereria bancrofti is a parasitic filarial nematode or roundworm, spread by a mosquito vector, commonly known as Armigeres subalbatus. It is one of the three parasites called filarial worms, causing lymphatic filariasis, an infection of the lymphatic system. Lymphatic filariasis has affected over 120 million people, in South America, tropical and subtropical countries and primarily in Africa. It can develop into a chronic disease called elephantiasis if the infection is left untreated. According to medical researchers, no known vaccines produce for this dreadful disease, and there are limited medical treatment existing for these rare cases. In the presence of microscopic, the elephantiasis occurs thread-like parasitic worms such as Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi  and  bancrofti timori , all of which are transmitted by mosquitoes. Most of the severe symptoms caused by the parasite can be avoided by skin cleansing, surgery, or the use of therapeutic drugs, such as diethylcarbamazine (DEC), ivermectin, or albendazole. To avoid contaminating these dreadful diseases, against other mosquito-spread illnesses, protection is very important, such as using mosquito nets, insect repellent or mass chemotherapy as method to control the spread of disease, especially in areas that are swampy and surrounded with trees and bushes.

3) Schistosoma mansoni : A young man gets schistosoma mansoni flukes in his brain, that caused him severe dizziness and nausea.

Schistosoma mansoni is a scary parasite of humans, a trematode, a class of flatworms in the Phylum Platyhelminthes, which is the internal parasites of molluscs and vertebrates, which is one of the major agents of the intestinal schistosomiasis disease, caused by Schistosoma mansoni.  The atypical trematodes Schistosomes in that the adult stages have two sexes or dioecious and are located in blood vessels of the primary host. Most other trematodes are hermaphroditic and are found in the liver organ or  intestinal tract. The schistosomes lifecycle includes two hosts, example the human as their definitive host where the parasite undergoes sexual reproduction, and a snail as their single intermediate host where these trematodes can do a number of asexual reproductive stages. The Schistosome eggs, which may become lodged within the hosts tissues, are the major cause of pathology in schistosomiasis disease. A beginning of egg laying in humans is sometimes associated with a fever called the Katayama fever, and other symptoms include fatigue, the severe itching caused by urticarial rashes that leads sometimes to eruption of pale temporary lumps, enlargement of the liver and spleen, and bronchospasm or bronchial spasm. But in some cases, many individuals do not experience symptoms, but if symptoms appear, it usually takes four to six weeks from the time of infection, and the first symptom of the disease, experiencing weakness and feeling very ill. The infected person may complain of light rashes and a tingling sensation, commonly known as swimmer’s itch, due to irritation at the point of entrance. The rash that may develop can be similar to other types of rashes or look like scabies. Other symptoms can happen two to ten weeks later with muscle ache, fever, cough, diarrhea or enlargement of glands. Some of the symptoms can also be related to avian schistosomiasis which symptoms do not affect humans.

4) “Outbreak”: A parasite outbreaks from across the U.S., where several children were affected by Angiostrongylus cantonensis worms after they eat salad that had infected snails.

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a parasitic roundworm (nematode) causing Angiostrongyliasis, the most common cause of eosinophilic meningitis in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin. These roundworms commonly dwells in the pulmonary arteries of rats, thus it is called the rat lungworm. The intermediate primary hosts of the nematodes are the snails,where larvae develop until they are infective. Humans are incidental hosts of this nematodes or roundworm, and become infected from eating or ingestion of contaminated water, vegetables, raw or undercooked snails or other vectors. The roundworm larvae are then transported via the blood stream to the central nervous system (CNS), that caused dreadful and scary disease called eosinophilic meningitis, a serious condition that can lead to death or permanent nerve and brain damage. The snails in the wild, this species often place a shelter for the Angiostrongylus cantonensis parasitic nematode, which can lead to serious meningitis in humans. Human having eaten the raw or undercooked snails or even handling live wild snails can result to serious meningitis cases and life-threatening infection. The Eosinophilic Meningitis clinical symptoms usually starts with slight fever or some cases with high fever, suggesting severe infection of the disease. severe headaches (a bitemporal character in the frontal or occipital lobe), meningismus (a neck stiffness nausea with or without vomiting),paresthesias (a feeling of tingling, prickling, or numbing of skin), hyperesthesia (a severe sensitivity to touch), bladder dysfunction with urinary retention, vertigo, photophobia (sensitivity to light or blindness), paralysis limited to a specific body part or one area, general paralysis often ascending starting with the feet and progressing upwards involving the entire body,coma, and death. Typical traditional medical management including analgesics and sedatives provide minimal relief the headaches and hyperthesias, a condition that involves an abnormal increase in sensitivity to stimuli of the sense. The removal of Cerebrospinal fluid or called the lumbar puncture at regular intervals of 3 to 7-day, is the only proven method of significantly reducing intracranial pressure and can be used for symptomatic treatment of headaches. This lumbar puncture process may be repeated until improvement is shown.

5) Cryptosporidium hominis diesease: An outbreak in 1993 of Cryptosporidium hominis that occurs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a south part of the city.

Cryptosporidium hominis, along with Cryptosporidium parvum, is among the medical important Cryptosporidium species an obligate parasite (a parasitic organism that cannot complete its life cycle without exploiting a suitable host) of humans that can colonize the gastrointestinal tract that caused gastroenteritis and diarrhea characteristic of crytosporidiosis. The cryptosporidium hominis parasite is almost exclusive for humans as host, unlike the crypstosporidium parvum, it has broad host range, and as a result, the C. hominis has a low zoonotic potential or the potential for animal infections to be transmissible to humans, comparing to C. parvum. These parasites is spread through the fecal-oral route through contaminated drinking water with oocyst laden feces. Cryptosporidiosis, also known as crypto, is a parasitic disease caused by a protozoan parasite in the phylun Apicomplexa known as Cryptosporidium, affecting the intestines and an acute short-term infection.For AIDS patients the immuno-compromised for individuals, this symptoms are particularly severe and often fatal. From March 23 to April 8, 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak , due to malfunction condition of the water purification plant, and was later shut down, became the largest waterborne disease outbreak in the United States, was a significant distribution of the Cryptosporidium protozoan. The residents of Milwaukee area, of estimated 880,000 were served by the malfunctioned treatment plant, became very ill, suffering from symptoms of stomach cramps, fever, diarrhea and severe dehydration caused by the pathogens. There were at least 104 deaths have been particular source to this outbreak, mostly among the elderly and individual with immunocompromised, such as AIDS patients. 

6) Leishmania parasites: A man living near Dallas, Texas was contaminated with Leishmania parasites transmitted by sandflies bites.

Leishmania is a genus of trypanosomatid protozoa and is the parasite causing scary leishmaniasis disease, which is spread through sandflies of the Old World genus Phlebotomus and of the New World genus Lutzomyia. There are at least 93 species of sandfly are proven or probable Leishmania vectors in the world. The Leishmania’s primary hosts are vertebrates, commonly infecting hyraxes (often mistaken for rodent family but are actually related to elephants), canids, rodents and humans.

A marathon runner deals with Leishmaniasis, which causes his spleen to swell.

Leishmaniasis disease is caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the sand fly bite (subfamily Phlebotominae). Although only one genus Leishmania was mentioned the majority of the literature transmitting Lutzomyia parasite to humans, in the US, and a study in 2003 by Galati suggested for American sand flies a new classification, putting up several subgenera to the genus level. Elsewhere in the world, The genus Phlebotomus is considered the leishmaniasis vector. There are two types of Leishmaniasis, the most serious form is the Visceral leishmaniasis and is fatal if left untreated, and the second type and most common form is the Cutaneous leishmaniasis, which causes a sore at the bitten area of the skin, which the healing process is slow and takes few months to a year, leaving an ugly scar. This leishmaniasis form can progress to any of the other three serious forms. The diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis creates widespread skin lesions which looks alike leprosy, and is one form very difficult to treat. The Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis starts with skin ulcers which spread, causing skin tissue damage, commonly affected is the nose and mouth.

A young college student who traveled to two countries from South America, gets a strange wound that slowly spreading and later known as Leishmaniasis disease. 

Sandfly bites causes Leishmaniasis Disease

Sandfly or sand fly is a common name for any Dipteran species of flying, biting and blood-sucking sand flies. Sandfly in the United States can be referred to certain horse flies also known as greenheads of family Tabanidae, or to Ceratopogonidae famliy members, also known as a sand gnat, sandflea, no-see-um (no-see-em, noseeum), granny nipper, chitra, punkie, or punky in Florida and other countries. Some of the Phlebotominae subfamily to sandfly genera are the primary vectors of leishmaniasis and pappataci fever also known as Phlebotomus fever, both diseases are confusingly referred to as sandfly fever. In 2010, a deadly outbreak in India occur and blamed the sandflies among the viruses carrier to a scary and dreadful Chandipura virus, which is related to rabies. 

7) Horsefly bites

Horse-fly is the common name for Tabanidae family, and due to broad categories of Tabanidae biting, bloodsucking, they are also called as breeze flies, clegs or clags, deer flies gadflies, or zimbs.They also are called as Bull Dog Flies in some areas in Canada, and March flies in Australia, a name which refers to a different Dipteran family in other English-speaking countries, the non-bloodsucking Bibionidae. Horsefly bites are painful, than that of its mosquito counterparts, although it still aims to escape quickly, before its victim react from the pain of bite, may mean that the victim is more concerned with attending to the wound, than not swatting the ‘predator’. Tabanidae family are known vectors for some blood-borne diseases of animals and humans. Tabanidae are also known as very good vectors of the equine infectious anaemia virus, also known as swamp fever as well as some Trypanosoma species. Species in The genus Chrysops species are primarily vectors of Loa loa (causes Loa loa filariasis commonly known as the eye worm), transmitting parasitic filarial worm between humans, also known to transmit anthrax (an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis) among cattle and sheep and tularemia between rabbits and humans, which became most common vector of such transmission of diseases in the Western United States.

8)  Tularemia Skin Lesions

Tularemia otherwise known as Pahvant Valley plague, rabbit fever, deer fly fever, and Ohara’s fever is a serious infectious disease  due bacterium Francisella tularensis, thus the disease spread through arthropods, and bites from primary vectors are deer flies and ticks. Depending on the site of infection, Tularemia has six characteristic clinical symptoms, according on the infected area known as the most common type that represents all forms known as ulceroglandular, glandular, oropharyngeal, pneumonic, oculoglandular, and typhoidal. This type of bacteria can penetrate into the body through damaged skin and mucous membranes, or by inhalation on the infected areas. Humans are most often infected by tick bite or by handling an infected animal, drinking infected water, handling infected soil, or food can also cause infection. In the summer of 2000, in Martha’s Vineyard was an outbreak of tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, resulted in one death and in a state of painful reaction of the CDC interest, and wanted to test the island as a potential investigative ground for the process or act of converting some physical substance into the form of particles small and light enough to be carried on the air like aerosolization into Francisella tularensis. Martha’s Vineyard was identified as the only place in the world where documented cases of tularemia outbreak resulted from lawn mowing.

9) A man gets maggots in his head after he went on a trip to Belize.

Myiasis is the parasitic infestation of the live mammal body body by fly larvae or maggots, that grow inside the host body while feeding on its tissue. Although flies are most commonly attracted to open wounds, urine and feces-soaked fur of domestic pets, some species (including the most common myiatic flies, the botfly, blowfly and screwfly, can produce an infestation even on unbroken skin and have been known to use moist soil and non-myiatic flies, commonly housefly as vector agents for their parasitic larvae. Informal term for myiasis include flystrike and blowfly strike, and the victim or the tissue may be described as fly-blown. Some of these flies lay eggs in open wounds, other larvae may invade unbroken skin or enter the body through the nose or ears, and others may be swallowed if the eggs or larvae are deposited on the lips or on food. The most common victim of myiasis worldwide is the domestic sheep, because of their thick wool or fur caused by the blowfly to lay their eggs, especially where conditions are hot and wet.

  A 16 year old boy gets a maggot in his eye, making it impossible for him to see clearly and nearly blinded.

Kenneth Watson, age 16, was complaining of blurry vision, and was rushed to the doctor by his mother. The young boy’s eye, was having blood clot and hemorrhages that blocked the optic nerves. The doctor  at first, could not find the cause of his eye disorder, but later discovered that a maggot was dwelling in his right eye, when a gnat or a certain kind of fly species laid an egg into his right eye, and the parasite hatched over a two weeks period. The parasite was feeding off the retinal tissue, and the larva or maggot is known as ocular myiasis, an eye infection affecting the southern states.

Maggots inside Nostrils

The 76 year-old  Mr. Ha Cat Tu, from Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province, was rushed to hospital on November 25 due to visible white and blue maggots in his nose, where previously, over 90 maggots were already picked out from the old man’s nostrils. Mr. Tu was suffering from sinusitis for years, and having sore and nose throat in the recent days. The maggots were detected in his right nostrils, while dripping Vietnamese traditional medicine into his nose by his family, and they picked and removed about 50 white and blue maggots from his nostrils.While Dr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Ear-Nose-Throat Ward doctor, picked another 40 maggots from the old man’s nostril, and said that the patient was suffering from septal inflammation, necrosis and left nasal congestion. The doctor’s initial diagnosis, that the patient with a history of sinusitis, that the insect eggs or larvae might enter his nose through ingestion or dripping traditional nasal medicine. (source:http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/odd-news/53570/the-old-man-with-nearly-100-maggots-in-the-nose.html)

 A six-year-old girl gets a strange red spot on her foot from having a maggot in her foot.

 

10)  A man contracted paragonimus from eating raw crayfish, causing him to cough constantly and cough up blood.

Paragonimus is in the genus of flatworms,or platyhelminths, including Paragonimus westermani an infectious lung fluke endemic to Asia, Africa, South America or the Middle East, that causes paragonimiasis a human disease. Paragonimiasis can commonly be misdiagnosed as Tuberculosis. The adult flatworm egg has a thick covering tegument, and has an oval shape body with spines, and both the oral sucker and acetabulum has round shape and muscular where the acetabulum is a little bigger than the oral sucker. These parasites commonly use two intermediate hosts, an aquatic snail and a crustacean in order to get through its mammalian definitive host including humans, dogs and cats. The humans can be contracted by the paragonimiasis by ingestion of freshwater crustaceans, such as raw or undercooked crabs or crayfish, that contains metacercariae. Once these parasites are ingested, it can enter the intestine, and the parasite will move into the abdomen and into the lungs. Inside the lung, theses parasites transform into a cyst where they will cross fertilize with one another. Once the cyst will rupture in the lungs, the parasite can be either be coughed up or swallowed and excreted in the feces. Soon the eggs landede in the freshwater, it will hatch into a ciliated miracidum infecting their first intermediate host commonly an aquatic snail. A crustacean may also become infected by eating the infected snail. The cycle starts again when the definitive host ingests the infected crustacean.

  A carpenter suffered from contracting with the paragonimus westermani, which causes him to have trouble breathing, from eating live crabs.

Paragonimus westermani is a lung fluke which is more known prominent in Asia and South America. It was first discovered in 1878, from two Bengal tigers that died in zoos in Europe, and after many years later, infections in humans were discovered in Formosa (now known as Taiwan). The skin or tegument of the worm is heavily covered with scalelike spines. The first intermediate hosts of the Paragonimus westermani are freshwater snails, and may infect fish, turtles including cartilaginous fish. Trematoda is a class within the phylum Platyhelminthes that contains three groups of parasitic flatworms, or called flukes. These parasitic flatworms groups are Cestoda, Monogenea and Trematoda. Almost all trematodes are parasites of mollusks and vertebrates. The smaller Aspidogastrea (a small group of flukes comprising about 80 species), are obligate parasites of mollusks. The Digenea, which constitute the majority of trematode differences, are obligate parasites of both mollusks and vertebrates, but occur very rare  in cartalaginous fish (sharks, rays and skates).

11)  A waitress deals with bed bugs after staying in a hotel.

Bed bugs are parasitic insects insects of the cimicid family that feed exclusively on blood. The common bed bug known as Cimex lectularius, prefers to feed on human blood. The bed bug name is derived from the preferred habitat of Cimex lectularius, warm houses and especially inside of beds and bedding or other sleeping areas. Bed bugs are known active during the night, but are not known as nocturnal insects, and commonly feed on their hosts blood unnoticed. A number of unfavorable health effects may result from bed bug bites, resulting to skin rashes, allergic symptoms and psychological effects about skin diseases.

A retiree who had been hospitalized in the previous years, contracted scabies from mites bites infections. 

Scabies also called Norwegian scabies or crusted scabies or informally called, the seven-year itch, is a contagious skin infection, which is more severe form of skin infection commonly related with immunosuppression,caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei mite.  The mite is a tiny and usually not visible parasites which burrows under the host’s skin, causing intense allergic itching. The sarcoptic mange infection in animals other than humans is caused by bites from different related mite species. Scabies is classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a water-related disease. The scabies disease may be transmitted most often by direct skin-to-skin contact, with a higher risk with prolonged contact, and the initial infections require four to six weeks to become symptomatic. However the reinfection, may manifest symptoms within as few as 24 hours. Because the symptoms are skin allergy like, their delay in onset is often seen by a delay in relief after the parasites have been rid.

A female dancer becomes concerned when her allergic outbreaks become lumpy and infected which she later found out she was infected by a parasite known as Trichinella spiralis.

Trichinella spiralis is a nematode or roundworm parasite, which can be commonly found in their primarily hosts such in rats, pigs, bears and humans, and is responsible for the trichinosis disease, sometimes referred to as the pork worm usually found in undercooked pork products. Trichinella species are the smallest nematode parasite of humans, having an unusual life cycle and are one of the most widespread and  important clinically parasites in the world. The small adult worms mature in the intermediate hosts like pig intestines. While the adult female produces batches of live larvae, making hole through the intestinal wall, enter the blood to feed on it and lymphatic system, and are carried to Striated muscle tissue, a form of fibers that have repeating sarcomeres, can refer to Cardiac muscle (heart muscle). Once in the muscle, they encyst, or become enclosed in a capsule. Humans can be contaminated through eating infected meat of pork or horse or wild carnivores, or contact with fox or bear. Trichinosis or trichinellosis is a disease caused by species Trichinella spiralis, a tissue-dwelling roundworms.

12)  A teenager is infected with the most deceptive parasites acanthamoeba that almost destroys her sight.

Acanthamoeba keratitis is a rare disease in which the amoebae parasite invade the eye cornea, and can result in permanent visual impairment or blindness. In the United States, This disease is always associated with the usage of contact lens, as the parasite Acantamoeba can survive in the space between the lens and the eye. For this reason, user of contact lens are advised to disinfect contact lenses properly before wearing, and contact lens should be removed when swimming or surfing. In 1973, the Acanthamoeba keratitis, was first discovered a rare, vision threatening, due to parasitic infection seen most often in contact lens users, and the risk factors include corneal trauma and exposure to organism often through contaminated water.

Corneal transplantation, also known as corneal grafting, is a surgical procedure where a damaged eye cornea is replaced by donated corneal tissue (the graft) in its complete penetrating keratoplasty or in part lamellar keratoplasty. The graft or donated corneal tissue is taken from a recently deceased person with no known diseases or other factors that may affect the viability of the donated tissue or the health of the recipient, such as death from accident. The transparent front part of the eye covering the iris, pupil and anterior chamber is called the cornea. 

13) An army veteran and a senior citizen is infected with a parasite known as strongyloides from 74 years ago.

Strongyloides stercoralis is the scientific name of a parasitic roundworm of human, causing the disease of strongyloidiasis. Strongyloides stercoralis common name is threadworm. In the UK and Australia, However, the name threadworm can also refer to nematodes of the genus Enterobius in Australia and in the United Kingdoma, otherwise known as pinworms. The Strongyloides stercoralis nematode can live on or in a host as a parasite in humans. The adult parasitic stage lives in the mucosa tunnels of the small intestine. The genus Strongyloides have 53 species and S. stercoralis is the type species, which has been reported found in other mammals, such as cats and dogs (but was later found out, species in dogs is typically not S. stercoralis. These autoinfective worms penetrate the perianal (anus) skin region, moving to the wall of the lower ileum or colon, then reenter the circulation, traveling to the lungs, and then to the small intestine, with repeated cycle, until the parasite reaches the lungs, and the chest can feel burning sensation, wheezing and coughing may result, along with pneumonia-like symptoms known as Löffler’s syndrome or Loeffler’s syndrome, a disease in which eosinophils accumulate in the lung in response to a parasitic infection. The intestines can be invaded, leading to burning pain like, damage of tissue, sepsis, and ulcers, leading to severe cases, resulting to edema obstruction of the intestinal tract, as well as loss of peristaltic contractions.

14)  An athlete runner is infected with Babesiosis.

Babesiosis is a malaria-parasitic disease is an infection caused by a genus of protozoal piroplasms Babesia. After the parasite trypanosomes, Babesia is thought to be the second most common mammalian blood parasite, and they can have a major impact on domestic animals health in areas without severe winters. Human babesiosis is not common and thought to a rare disease, but reported cases have risen recently because of expanded medical awareness. In most cases of Babesia infection has no symptoms, and often unnoticed or unexplained, but can include mild fevers and diarrhea. In more severe cases, there are symptoms similar to malaria,with high fevers, experiencing shaking and chilling, and severe hemolytic anemia. Followed by organ failure, including adult respiratory distress syndrome. Severe cases affect mostly in people who have undergo splenectomy , a surgical procedure, the removal of the spleen partially or completely. Severe cases can also affect in very young or old persons, very old, and persons with immunodeficiency, like patients with HIV/AIDS.

A middle-aged man contracted Babesiosis, who has been taking care for his ailing mother, which he gets infected from walking barefoot to the mailbox. Since he lost his spleen from cancer, he gets severe diarrhea, in addition to fever, fatigue, and night sweats.

Ticks are small arachnids in the order Ixodida, beside the mites, they form the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by hematophagy on the mammal’s blood, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are known vectors of a number of diseases, that includes Lyme disease, Q fever (a rare disease commonly transmitted by infected excreta), Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, African tick bite fever, tularemia, tick-borne relapsing fever, tick-borne meningoencephalitis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Tick paralysis, and bovine anaplasmosis.

African tick bite fever is a bacterial infection transmitted by the family of ticks Amblyomma, Dermacentor or the Rhipicephalus. Flea-borne spotted fever is a condition characterized by a rash of maculopapules or furuncles or boil, caused by Rickettsia felis or cat-flea typhus.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the most fatal and reported rickettsial (Rickettsia species are carried by many tick, fleas and lice) illness in the United States. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is distinguished as not being the same from Colorado tick fever, the viral tick-borne infection. In other countries, some synonyms for Rocky Mountain spotted fever is called in Colombia it is known as Tobia fever, tick typhus,  in Brazil it is called febre maculosa or São Paulo fever, and in Mexico it is known as fiebre manchada. Rocky Mountain spotted fever, like all rickettsial infections, is classified as a zoonosis or Zoonoses are diseases of infected with ticks and mites animals that can be transmitted to humans. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is considered as a serious and potentially life-threatening infectious disease.

Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a widespread tick-borne viral disease, a domestic animals and wild animals zoonosis, that may affect humans. The pathogenic virus, which is common in East and West Africa. The CCHF disease is rare in infected mammals, but commonly severe in humans if infected. Outbreaks of illness are commonly attributed by handling infected animals or people. Following the tick bite, the incubation period is 1 to 3 days, and symptoms of flu like fever appear, which may resolve after one week, and other symptoms by the patients includes mood instability, agitation, mental confusion and throat petechiae or red or purple spot, nosebleeds, bloody urine and vomiting, and black stools. The liver becomes swollen and painful, can suffer disseminated intravascular coagulation, as well as acute kidney failure and shock, and sometimes acute respiratory syndrome. After 9 to 10 days, patients usually begin to show signs of recovery after the symptoms appear, however 30% of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever cases result in death on the second week of the illness.

15) A 10-year old child was infected with brain-eating amoeba Parasites that take over his bodies.

Naegleria fowleri is a free-living excavate often known as Excavata form of protist formally called the Protista, typically found in warm bodies of fresh water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and hot springs. It is also found in soil, near warm-water  industrial plants discharges, and unchlorinated or poorly chlorinated swimming pools in an amoeboid or temporary flagellate stage, and no evidence that this organism lives in salt water. This amoeba belongs to the groups Percolozoa or Heterolobosea. Naegleria fowleri can invade and attack the human nervous system, though very rare, the infection nearly always results is very fatal to the victim. Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM, or PAME) is a disease of the central nervous system caused by Naegleria fowleri infection. Naegleria fowleri’s reproduction in warm, stagnant freshwater bodies (typically during the summer months), and enters the central nervous system after insufflation (inhalation or breathing or puffing) of infected water by attaching itself to the olfactory nerve (first of twelve pairs of cranial nerves), then migrates through the cribriform plate and into the forebrain’s olfactory valve, where it multiplies itself greatly by feeding on nerve tissue.

16)  A scientist is infected with Onchocerciasis, the worms that cause river blindness.

Onchocerciasis also known as river blindness and Robles disease, is a parasitic disease caused by infection by roundworm (nematode) Onchocerca volvulus. Onchocerciasis is second infectious diseases in the world to trachoma as an infectious cause of blindness. It is known that the endosymbiont (any organism living within the body or cells of another organism that forms endosymbiosis) and not caused by nematode or roundworms, a genus of bacteria infecting arthropod species, that includes a high proportion of insects as well as nematodes or roundworm known as Wolbachia, and pipientis, that causes the severe inflammatory response that leaves many victims blind. The parasite is transmitted to humans through the bite of a black fly of the genus Simulum, and the larval nematodes spread throughout the body. When the worms die, their Wolbachia symbionts are released, triggering an immune system of the host, and in response that can cause severe itching, and can destroy the eye optical tissue. Black flies are central to the transmission of the Onchocerca volvulus parasitic nematode which causes onchocerciasis, or river blindness. The parasite dwells on human skin and is transmitted to the black fly during feeding. Most river blindness infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa, although cases have also been reported in Yemen and isolated areas of  Central and South America.

17)  A young boy is infected with toxocara that threatens to take his sight.

An active, busy middle-aged woman experiences stomach cramps, explosive diarrhea, lightheadedness, and blurred vision from the Toxocara parasite,  which she probably got from contaminated food.

 

The Toxocaridae are a zoonotic family of parasitic roundworms, that infect canids and felids and can cause toxocariasis in humans (visceral larva migrans and ocular larva migrans). The worms are unable to reproduce in humans. Three important species include, that infects dogs are known Toxocara canis, Toxocara cati infects cats and lacks intermediate hosts,Toxocara vitulorum infects buffalo and cattle. One of these nematodes known as visceral larva migrans, where the larvae are unable to develop in humans as but develop in cats and dogs, their natural hosts. Prevented development of the larvae leaves to wander aimlessly in the body, can cause inflammation, most commonly in the liver and the lungs. The Toxocaridae eggs enter into the body through ingestion, for example, when eggs are deposited on the human hands or face, after handling infected dogs or cats. Most especially in children without contact to domestic animals, nematode eggs can be introduced by directly ingesting egg-contaminated soil while playing in a yard or on a playground, or a young child playing with puppy or kitten. Many young children who have been infected with these larvae, causing ocular larva migrans in the eye, are commonly  have been misdiagnosed to have retinoblastoma and have had their eyes removed. 

Leslie Ash contracted toxoplasmosis, two months into her pregnancy in France, where toxoplasmosis is more common than the UK.

Leslie Ash, age 53, is an English actress, best known for her role in the Men Behaving Badly sitcom and released Tell Him single reaching number 25 in the UK singles chart. Ash is married to Lee Chapman, a former footballer, and they have two sons. She was formerly in a relationship with actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson popularly known as Mr Bean, which ended in 1984. Ash contracted toxoplasmosis  two months into her pregnancy in France, where toxoplasmosis is more common than the UK. In April 2004, Ash was hospitalised at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after suffering two cracked ribs, claiming she fell off her bed. She was discharged after only a few days, but was readmitted after losing all feeling in her legs or temporary paralysis. While Ash, was still recuperating in the hospital, it was announced that she was infected with staphylococcus aureus infection in June 2004 and was diagnosed she might be unable to walk permanently. Ash was seen taking some steps with the assistance of crutches sometime in August. Since her compensation award she has worked again, but has not been required to return any settlement money. From October 13 2009 to April 6, 2010, Leslie Ash played the character of Vanessa Lytton in the BBC series Holby City.

18)  A woman is infected with Tapeworm cysts that reduces her flow of spinal fluid.

Tapeworm Infestation is the infection of the digestive tract by adult parasitic flatworms called cestodes or tapeworms. Live coenuri  tapeworm larvae are commonly ingested by consuming undercooked food, and when inside the digestive tract, a larva can grow into a very large adult tapeworm. Many tapeworm larvae cause symptoms in an intermediate host. For example, cysticercosis is a disease of humans, involving larval tapeworms in the human body. Cysticercosis refers to infection of tissue after exposure to Taenia solium eggs, the tapeworm from pork meat. The disease spread easily via the fecal-oral route through contaminated food and water, and is primarily a food borne disease. Taenia solium, also called the pork tapeworm, is a cyclophyllid cestode in the family Taeniidae, infecting pigs and humans in Asia, Africa, south America, parts of Southern Europe and some parts of North America. In the larval stage, It causes cysticercosis in the larval stages, which is a major cause of seizures in humans. Like all cyclophyllid cestodes, the Taenia solium, has four suckers on its scolex or head  and also has two rows of three hooks.

A computer programmer gets severe malaria from the Plasmodium parasite that makes him lose control of his mind and post-malarial neurological symptoms two weeks after his recovery.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by a type of microorganism known as protists, of the genus Plasmodium. This disease is contaminated by human from a bite of infected  female Anopheles mosquito, which introduces the protists through saliva into the circulatory system, when in the blood, the protists travel to the liver to mature and reproduce. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, sever headache,which in severe cases can progress to coma or death. The signs and symptoms of malaria typically start from infected mosquito bites from 8 to 25 days with similar flu-like symptoms, and can resemble other complications such as septicemia, gastroenteritis and viral diseases. The symptoms may include headache, fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, hemolytic anemia, jaundice, hemoglobin in the urine, retinal damage and convulsions. The malaria disease is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions in a broad band around the equator, and some part of Americas, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

19) A fit and active dance instructor is suddenly stopped in her dancing lessons by unbearable abdominal pain and vomiting, and a mysterious mass in her colon is revealed to be decaying Anisakis worms. 

Anisakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes (roundworm), which have life cycles involving fish and other marine mammals.They are infective to humans causing the scary disease called anisakiasis. A person producing immunoglobulin E, in response to this parasite infection, may have an allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis, after eating fish that have been infected with Anisakis species. Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that fast in onset and may cause death. Symptoms of these disease typically causes an itchy rash, throat swelling, and low blood pressure. Common causes and responsible for infectious disease include insect bites or stings, contaminated foods, and improper medications. Anisakiasis is a human parasitic infection of the gastrointestinal tract caused by the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood containing nematode Anisakis simplex larvae. Commonly frequently reported in areas of the world where fish is consumed raw, lightly pickled or salted. Most areas reported of highest prevalence are Scandinavia from eating cod livers, Japan known for eating sashimi and sushi, the Netherlands by eating infected fermented herrings (maatjes)), and eating famous food known as ceviche (raw fish) along the Pacific Coast of South America.

The salmon louse, or Lepeophtheirus salmonis, is a copepod species in the genus Lepeophtheirus. The sea louse, a parasite dwelling on salmon fish meat, it lives off the salmon’s or fish mucus, skin and blood.

20)  A teenaged girl was suffering from losing her vision, and medical tests revealed that a rare, vicious tapeworm detaches the retina of her left eye, and known the dreadful tapeworm as taenia crassiceps.

Taenia crassiceps is a parasitic organism, member of genus Taenia, a kind of tapeworm. It is related to Taenia solium, the pork tapeworm, and to the beef tapeworm called Taenia sagimata, commonly found throughout Canada and the northern United States.The parasites starts its life cycle in a wild canine intestine, like a coyote. The tapeworm reproduces inside the coyote’s body, then the eggs are passed in the coyote feces, and is eaten by a rat. When the rat is being eaten by another coyote, the parasites life cycle repeats. Taenia crassiceps are extremely rare to cause infection in humans. However if they do infect humans they feast on the vitreous and retina of the eye and can cause blindness. An adult human’s immune system typically removes the parasite before permanent damage is done. However juveniles are typically less defended.

21)  An animal volunteer deals with hookworm from a cat, when a kitten scratches her on the chest.

Ancylostomiasis (also anchylostomiasis or ankylostomiasis) is the condition of infection by Ancylostoma hookworms. Ancylostomiasis is also known as miner’s anaemia, tunnel disease, brickmaker’s anaemia and Egyptian chlorosis, also referred to as Helminthiasis, but this term also refers to all other parasitic worm diseases. Ancylostomiasis  occur when hookworms, present in large numbers, produce an iron deficiency anemia by sucking blood from the host’s intestinal walls, and commonly infect the skin, eyes, and viscera in humans. While the Ancylostoma brasiliensis causing cutaneous larva migrans, while the visceral larva migrans causes Toxocara. Walking barefooted among children or adults, are prone to diseases when the hookworm can penetrate the sole of the foot and cause a lesion. The larva will start to mature while it moves towards the intestines, for example in dogs, the hookworm will attach to the intestinal wall. Infected humans with tapeworms, will show symptoms of intestinal bleeding, abdominal pains, anemia, severe diarrhea and malnutrition or loss of weight..

A couple was suffering with strange rashes that spreads on their bodies after eating raw catfish in Africa, and picked the gnathostoma roundworm.   

Gnathostoma is a genus of parasitic nematodes, and the species Gnathostoma spinigerum and Gnathostoma hispidum infects vertebrates and can cause gnathostomiasis. Gnathostomiasis is transmitted through ingestion of raw, ot preoperly cooked or undercooked definitive hosts such as fresh water fish,poultry or forgs, swamp eels are an important host for Gnathostoma spinigerum, with common names, swamp eel, rice eel, white ricefield eel, Asian swamp eel. Eating raw or undercooked swamp eel can cause gnathostomiasis, also called as larva migrans profundus is the human infection by the roundworm (nematode).

22)  An army veteran and a guidance counselor,develops loss of appetite, unusual weight loss, and abdominal pain pulls out a parasitic roundworm called Ascaris lumbricoides, which he picked up from eating contaminated food while serving in the army.

Ascaris lumbricoides is the human giant roundworm, belonging to the phylum Nematode, and an ascarid nematode is responsible for the ascariasis disease in humans, and it is the largest and most common human parasitic worm. Ascariasis is generally common worldwide and more so in tropical and subtropical countries. Roundworm or known as Ascaris lumbricoides, infections in humans occur when an ingested fertilised egg becomes a larval worm that penetrates the duodenum wall and enters the blood steam, then it travels to the liver and the heart and enters pulmonary circulation to break free in the alveoli, where it grows and molts or coat with outer coverings. The larvae pass from the respiratory system in three weeks time, to be coughed up, swallowed, and go back to the small intestine, where they mature to adult male and female worms. Fertilization of the egg can occur and the female produces as many as 200,000 eggs per day for a year, and these fertilized eggs become infectious after 2 weeks in soil, they can continue firmly in soil for 10 years or more.

23)  The scary and vicious Entamoeba parasite attacks a schoolteacher from the inside out.

Entamoeba is a genus of Amoebozoa commonly found as an internal parasites or commensals, a class of relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits without affecting the other, compared with mutualism of animals. Several species are found in humans. Entamoeba histolytica is the pathogen responsible for amoebiasis (which includes amoebic dysentery and amoebic liver abcess), while others such as Entamoeba coli (not to be confused with Escherichia coli) and Entamoeba dispar  are harmless. The amoebic liver abscess is a type of liver abcess caused by amoebiasis. 

A firefighter became very ill with an autoimmune disorder causing him meningitis, from a microscopic amoeba called balamuthia mandrillaris.

Balamuthia mandrillaris is a free-living leptomyxid amoeba primarily caused of amoebiasis disease in humans, especially the deadly neurological condition known as granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE). In 1986, Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first discovered Balamuthia mandrillaris, and the amoeba was found in the brain of a dead mandrill, a baboon, after an extensive research, B. mandrillaris was declared in 1993 as a new species. Balamuthia infection have been diagnosed worldwide, since then, with at least 70 cases reported in the United States. But there are only little known at this time about how a person becomes infected. Balamuthia infection is a cutaneous condition resulting in various skin lesions. The Balamuthia amoebae can then travel to the brain through the blood stream and cause granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE), a serious infection of the brain and spinal cord, a very rare disease that is usually fatal.

24)  A nine year old girl suffering from severe stomach cramps and was later discovered she was infected with Giardia parasite.

Giardia is a genus of anaerobic flagellated (organism with one or more whip-like organelles called flagella) protozoan parasites of the phylum Diplomonada in the supergroup Excavata (named for the excavated groove on one side of the cell body) that colonize and reproduce in the small intestines of some vertebrates, that causes giardiasis. Giardia lives inside the infected human’s intestines or other animals. Individuals become infected through ingesting or direct contact with contaminated food, soil, or water. Giardia is also suspected to be zoonotic, a communicable between humans and other animals. Beavers, dogs, cats, horses,cattle , birds and humans are the common primary reservoir hosts for Giardia.

25)  A peace volunteer deals with a strange nosebleed, and discovered a bloodsucking leech in his nose

Nosebleeding

leech

leech attacking a slug

Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and contain the Hirudinea subclass. Most blood-sucking leeches the digestive system starts with the so-called jaws, three blades set at an angle to each other. In feeding, the leeches slice their way through the skin of the host, leaving a Y-shaped incision. Behind the blades is the mouth, located ventrally at the anterior end of the body. Medicinal leeches are of several species of leeches, and the most common medicinal leeches is the Hirudo medicinalis, the European medicinal leech.