27 Oct,2023
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Transmitted when a person drinks water containing infected water fleas, or Cyclops, guinea worms cause incapacitating pain when they gnaw their way out of their human hosts in order to lay their eggs. Luckily, infection by these horrific creatures has substantially diminished as a result of eradication efforts by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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There are about 5,000 species of these intestinal parasites, but only three—the pork, beef, and fish tapeworms—regularly set up shop in the human body. If you think it couldn’t get any worse than having one of these ghastly creatures affix itself to your intestinal wall, think again. If you accidentally consume an embryo, the larva may burrow into your muscles, skin, eyes, or brain.
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The pernicious pinworm is the most common of its brethren to infect humans in the United States. While their hosts are asleep, mother pinworms make the slog from their home in the large intestine to the anal opening, where they lay their eggs, a process that causes an itching sensation. Eggs are picked up under the fingernails and reingested by the victim. There’s a reason why this parasite is most common among children.
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Heartworms can live for five to seven years. Years. In your dog’s heart. Transmitted in larval form by mosquitoes, the foot-long worms can eventually cause cardiovascular blockages. Monthly preventive treatment is essential, even for indoor animals. Cats can get them too and are even more severely affected than dogs. Oh, and they have been found in human brains, eyes, lungs, and testicles.
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A huge proportion of the world’s population is infected with this large nematode worm. Some estimates place the number of infections—mostly in developing countries—at over a billion and the number of deaths each year in the tens of thousands.
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Close to a billion people are infected by whipworms, which are relatively tiny—about four centimeters long—and disgustingly fecund. Mature females may lay thousands of eggs every day in the colons of infected people.
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Dogs and cats each have their very own species of Toxocara. Like many of the above parasites, they are transmitted by the consumption of eggs from either the soil or from a prey animal that is infected. The canine species can also be transmitted in utero.
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