Source: DailyMail
10 EVIL PARASITES THAT MAY BE LIVING INSIDE YOU RIGHT NOW
Posting this just for the gross out factor. I worked with someone who came back from Central America and had a Botfly living on the back of his neck. Just talking about it would make one of the women in the office actually gag.....
Definitely overlooked as a leading reason for permanent health damage and even death, some parasite could be living in your body right now. Roundworms, tapeworms, pinworms, and other parasites can find a way into your food or through your skin. Once infected, they can move through your body and start coming out of your eyes or skin.
Here are some of the terrifying parasites that might be crawling under your skin right now.
1. Loa Loa
Source: roarnews
This parasite can get into any opening in your body and end up coming out of your eye.
Loa loa first infect deerfly. Once these bugs are infected a single bite will spread the parasite. Unlike scabies, this parasite cannot be passed from person to person.
The adult worm will wander through the skin until it reaches the host’s eye. If the host is unlucky enough to have a male and a female worm, it will produce more eggs. Those eggs will circulate through the blood stream and spread throughout the body.
Treatment is dangerous and if you have the eyeworm can become increasingly complicated. The worm needs to be surgically removed. Removing the worm from your eye doesn’t cure the infection, and there may be many other parasites on other parts of your body.
2. Scabies
Source: regionalderm
These highly contagious bugs make your skin break out in rashes.
Scabies in an infestation that affects the skin. The skin mites infest a person’s skin, making the person itchy and break out in rashes. Scabies is highly contagious, and direct skin-to-skin contact can quickly spread the infestation to other people.
A person who has never been infected with scabies before may not show any signs or symptoms until four to six weeks later. The most common sign is intense itching and rashes that begin appearing on the body. The rashes may appear all over the body, but the persistent itching is usually focused around the fingers, nipple, penis, buttocks, and waist. The rashes can have small blisters or scales and scratching can make it even worse, becoming infected by other bacteria.
There are products that can be used to treat scabies and kills the mites. There are some medications that can also kill the eggs.
3. Roundworm
Source: MED
These parasites infect as many as 1.5 billion people and responsible for 60,000 deaths per year.
Roundworms are commonly found in the intestine of dogs and cats but can also infect humans. People who are owners of dogs or cats have a higher probability of contracting the parasite. About 13% of the US population has antibodies for the roundworm. Found in most places where there is poor sanitation, these parasites are transmitted through unsafe food or water.
Most people who get roundworms have no signs or symptoms and don’t ever get sick. The most severe and rare cases occur among young children that play or eat dirt that was contaminated by animal feces. There are different symptoms depending on where the roundworm infects its host. They can burrow into your lungs resulting in coughing, vomiting roundworms, and abdominal pain.
4. Guinea Worm
Source: Monitor
Drinking contaminated water will leave you with worms that will crawl out of your skin.
Most people become infected with the Guinea worm by drinking from stagnant ponds or bodies of water that contain “water fleas.” These bugs carry the Guinea worm larvae and when eaten, infect the host. The larvae will being to grow and develop inside the body. After a year, the female worms will start to crawl out of your skin.
The majority of people infected with the parasite won’t have symptoms until a year after they have been infected. Most people develop a fever, swelling, and pain in the area the worm tries to burrow out from. The pain from the Guinea worm is said to be very slow and even disabling depending on where they decide to come out. It can take weeks for the worm to escape the body, and the only way to help remove it is to pull it out a few centimeters each day.
There is no drug that can treat the Guinea worm and there is no vaccine to prevent getting infected.
5. Human Botfly
Source: Creepy Basement
These parasites can live in your skin, mouth or even eyes.
Known as myiasis, this is when a person is infected with a fly larva. These parasites attach their eggs to mosquitoes. Their larvae use the mosquito bite as an entryway into the body. Once inside, the eggs hatch and mature under the human skin. They stay under the skin until they’re fully developed and dig their way out of the host’s body. Another way people are infected when accidentally ingesting the larvae.
The majority of people who get infected usually happens in Africa and South America but cases have been found in the United States. In most cases, the fly larvae needs to be surgically removed.
6. Tapeworm
Source: humanillnesses
No signs or symptoms make it hard to tell if you have it or not.
Infection usually occurs when someone eats raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal. Once inside, the tapeworm begins to develop in your intestines. These worms can live up to 30 years in their hosts and in most cases, there are no signs or symptoms of the parasite.
7. Hookworm
Source: Flickr
Parasites live in your intestines and suck your blood.
There are over 700 million people who are infected with the hookworm. These intestinal worms can transfer between birds, dogs, cats or humans. It is easily passed in the feces of an infected person. Once they hatch and mature they can pierce through skin.
People living in warm and humid climates with poor hygiene are more likely to be infected. If they walk barefoot or allow their skin to come in contact these hookworms can pierce through the skin and spread to other parts of the body. Signs and symptoms are usually itching and rashes where they entered the body. People with a light infection don’t show any signs or symptoms while those with severe cases of hookworm experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss and anemia.
A hookworm infection during pregnancy can retard the growth of the fetus, premature birth, or death.
8. Pinworm
Source: Slideplayer
Lay eggs on your anus and use you to infect other people.
The most common type of intestinal worm infection in the United States. These white roundworms can live in the colon and rectum of the body. They are the size of a staple and can easily multiply when left untreated.
The female lays thousands of eggs in the folds around the anus. Most people don’t have symptoms but will experience itchiness. Once they scratch, the eggs get lodged underneath the fingernails. The next thing that person touches is its next home.
They are most common among school-aged children and most likely transferred from fecal-oral route. That means they come from a person’s butt and spread by getting into someone’s mouth. They can live 2-3 weeks on clothing, bedding, or other objects before infecting another person.
9. Whipworm
Source: Stanford
Painful passage of stool, diarrhea, and rectal prolapse.
Another type of intestinal parasite, humans usually get infected from soil or water. The larvae and adult worms will infest the intestine of humans and multiply.
People with light infections usually have no signs or symptoms. But in extreme cases, once infected, the host will experience bloody diarrhea, painful defecation, nausea and vomiting, weight loss and rectal prolapse. Health care providers can diagnose whipworm from a stool sample and if there is a presence of whipworm eggs.
This parasite can be spread from person to person through feces. In some countries, mass drug administrations (MDAs) are administered to help prevent the parasite from spreading.
10. Blood-Flukes
Source: Glogster
They journey into your bloodstream and lay eggs that spread to your liver, bladder, lungs and intestines.
Blood-flukes are flat worms that can be found on the bile ducts and liver of infected people or animals. They are found in more than 50 different countries and infect the host through contaminated water or eating vegetables like watercress or freshwater plants.
More than 200 million people infected with this parasite worldwide. The first symptoms once you’ve been infected are chills, cough, diarrhea, and fever. They will then begin to spread their eggs to other parts of your body like your liver, bladder, lungs. If it spreads to the brain or spinal cord, they can cause seizures or paralysis.
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