Parasites are small living organisms that live and grow within a host organism to survive: they breed and feed from the food and the blood of its host .which can create more or less serious problems.
Some parasites are more terrifying and horrible and many of them don’t hit you right away and they take time to do damage and destroy your body or even eat your brain slowly until it’s too late.
1Naegleria fowleri
A health alert was initiated in Louisiana after the discovery of a deadly amoeba in the water circuit of four municipalities. A nine year old girl died in July in Kansas. This mirco-organisms, thankfully as rare as terrifying, devours the brain of its host.
Recent samples showed the presence of Naegleria Fowleri in running water, a microorganism that causes the death of the person it infects 95% of cases: it devours the brain, neither more nor less. The victim died in two weeks.
The people of four cities in the parish of St. John the Baptist were warned, and were asked to respect some health advice. Chlorine rate pools and running water were raised to kill this dangerous agent.
This microorganism is well known in the US as it did 34 victims over the past decade. The latest in Kansas in July: Hally Yust, a 9 year old girl who practiced intensely water sports, died after swimming in the lakes.
The death within days
The Fowleri Naegleria is a pathogenic amoeba that can be free in small quantities in fresh water above 25 ° C, often near the cooling circuits of power stations, for example. It enters the human body when the victim inhales contaminated water (drinking contaminated water is safe). Up the olfactory nerve, it attacks the brain and causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis (MEAP) and the almost certain death is in fifteen days.
Yes, it seems terrifying and horrible, however this infection is very rare: it was much more likely to die by drowning. In 50 years, only 310 cases were reported worldwide, and eleven people survived.
The problem seems more terrifying in Pakistan, where a young man of 29 years died on 13 August. Since May, he is the seventh victim in this country. Tests in the running water system of Karashi revealed unsatisfactory chlorine levels, which certainly favored the multiplication of Naegleria Fowleri. Already in 2012, ten people had died of a MEAP in Islamabad.
Wuchereria bancrofti
This parasite is not (or exceptionally) a disease of acute traveler in infested area; however it is much more common than we imagine at some expatriates and especially among migrants.
One billion people are at risk in 73 countries, 120 million are clinically affected and 43 million in a serious situation. The third of these have contracted the FL in India, another third in black Africa, the last in Southeast Asia( India ), the Pacific region and Latin America ( Brazil ).
In endemic areas, 10 to 50% of men and 10% of women are infected
Wuchereria bancrofti lives mostly to adulthood (macrofilariae, 4 to 10cm long) huddled in the lymphatic system of man. Females lay microfilariae (mf) that circulate in the lymph and blood periodically. By biting infected individuals, mosquitoes (Culex, Aedes, Anopheles, Mansonia) capture blood mf. Which are injected to a healthy subject, and become adults in the lymphatic system.
Collective prevention:
Vector control and especially mass treatments to reduce microfilariae populations: uses associated with albendazole or ivermectin diethylcarbamazine, a single dose, once a year
The Loa Loa parasite
The Loa Loa or Loa loafilariasis is a strictly African cutaneous dermal caused by roundworms from 2 to 7cm long which lives under the skin sometimes for several decades. In these countries, the infection rate may be up to 35% of the population with an estimated prevalence of tens of millions of people infected.
The incubation period (expression of the disease) is more than three months, the patient is then usually asymptomatic but may present during the infection three types of symptoms that occur independently or not and that are related to cycle of the parasite:
The worm passage is under the conjunctiva, and often accompanied by pain, edema and foreign body sensation, tearing.
The adult worm that is crawling under the skin with unpleasant tingling sensation, it appears as a mobile palpable cord.
Allergic swelling lasting from a few hours to a few days mainly located in the upper limbs with tension sensation.
Late manifestations are sometimes possible with troubles in the neurological system (encephalitis), cardiac (endomyocardite) or renal (glomerulonephritis) and are often linked to a misbehaving treatment or doses.
Ascaris lumbricoides
This worm can grow to 13.8 inches (35 cm) in length, known as the largest and most common parasite in human, the organism that is responsible for the disease is called Ascaris.
This infection has no symptoms and for over than 85% of cases, the number of worms inside the human body is small, however when that number increases the symptoms begin to show such as:
- Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
- Fever
- Abdominal pain and swelling
Children are more common to be affected by it , and if they are in fact hit by it , it will result poor weight gain,bad nutrition and learning problems .
In order to avoid this creature beware of food or drinks contaminated with Ascaris eggs.
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