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Rare Parasites in Humans

Parasites in humans can cause all sorts of problems. There are many types of parasites, such as worms, microscopic protozoa and skin parasites. Most pose no danger (and some even help us), though there are a few that can be dangerous to people's health.

  1. Human Botfly

    • There are about 150 species of the botfly, but only one, Dermatobia Hominis, uses humans as a host for hatching larvae. The botfly will lay eggs on the skin. When the larva takes notice of the warmth of the body it will hatch and dig deeper into the skin. There, it will feed for about two months. Afterwards, it will crawl out and drop to the ground, where it will take a week to become an adult botfly.

    Trypanosoma Brucei

    • Trypanosoma brucei, which is transmitted to humans by the tsetse fly, causes sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis. The parasite feeds on the blood of its human host. It is not killed by the immune system because its cell membrane has a very thick coating of glycoprotein and constantly changes its structure to evade detection. The final stages of the disease, after the parasite penetrates the blood-brain barrier and enters the brain, can cause serious health issues such as coma, blackouts, insomnia or death.

    Loa Loa

    • The thread-like worm loa loa lives under the skin causing loiasis. Called the eye worm, because it can been found migrating in the eye, it is carried by deer flies and mango flies. The life cycle of the loa loa starts when a loa loa female gives birth to microfilariae inside an infected human. When a deer fly takes blood from the infected human the microfilariae will develop into larvae. These larvae are then redeposited into the human, under the skin, via the deer fly where they will develop into adult loa loa after a year.

    Anisakis

    • Anisakis are roundworms that live in the stomach of their hosts. Eating raw fish or squid can transmit the worms into a human host, where they will only survive for a few weeks. However, within those few weeks the worms can cause stomach pain and nausea.

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