- Ahhh, remember the days when you didn't have to worry
about a collection of harmful parasites working their way
through your body on a microscopic family vacation?
Aah, those were the days.
Most of us think of ourselves as pretty healthy.
We go to the gym, we eat right,
and we generally feel, overall, good.
What if I told you that there may be little creatures
living inside you right now that are slowly killing you,
and you might not even know it?
Unfortunately, it's true, and since I felt like it was time
for a feel-good video, let's discuss which ones might be
hitching a ride inside you right now,
so curl up with a warm blanket and let's get disgusting.
Here are 10 horrific parasites that may be
inside you right now.
Number one is naegleria fowleri.
Remember, in old zombie movies,
how it was oddly adorable that zombies
would specifically seek out brains to eat?
Well, it's less adorable when it's a reality
and they're brain-eating amoeba.
Found in warm bodies of freshwater such as ponds and lakes,
this little horror show likes to hop into a person
and attack the human nervous system and brain.
This causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis,
which, in the early days, messes with your sense of smell,
then rapidly destroys your ability to smell at all.
Then, there's the basket of horrible symptoms,
which include headache, nausea,
and the rigidity of neck muscles,
until you get thrown into an irreversible coma.
Within only 14 days of exposure, death occurs,
as a result of respiratory failure, see, adorable.
Thankfully, the disease is rare and there have been fewer
than 200 confirmed cases,
so hey, feel free to go swimming in that body of water.
You feel lucky enough, right?
Number two is the wuchereria bancrofti.
Let me introduce you to the wuchereria bancrofti,
a human parasitic roundworm that is the major cause
of lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis.
This disease rarely has symptoms,
but can cause large amounts of swelling
in the arms, legs, and even genitals.
This growth is often painful,
and the associated physical changes
can affect a person financially and socially.
Of the three worms that infect the lymphatic system
to cause this disease, bancrofti is the most common
and affects over 120 million people.
The worm is found primarily in Central Africa,
South and Central America, in the tropical regions of Asia.
Limited treatments for this parasite exist,
and, as of today, no vaccines have been developed.
In Ancient Greece and Rome, writers noted down
the similarities between the enlarged limbs and cracked skin
to that of elephants, because every time someone looks
a bit like an animal, we have to call them by it.
That's why mature women are called cougars, I think.
They just pounce so fast.
Number three is the loa loa.
Aside from sounding like a Hawaiian greeting,
it's a tiny little roundworm that, believe me,
you would not want to say hi to.
Commonly known as the eye worm,
the loa loa is found in Africa and India.
It's one of the three parasitic roundworms
that cause subcutaneous filariasis in humans,
which is just a fancy way of saying
it causes skin and eye disease.
The process of infection starts with a vector fly
biting an infected human host, then transfers the larvae
to another uninfected human, where the larva would mature.
The adult loa loa migrates
through the subcutaneous tissues of humans,
occasionally crossing the tissues into the eye,
where it could be easily observed
swimming around in your eyeball.
The worms can be removed quite easily
with a trip to the surgeon, but the most common treatment
is done with the use of a drug called ivermectin.
The silver lining is that while this worm
is in your eyeball, if you focus on him really hard,
you'll notice the little guy waving at ya.
Hey, little buddy.
Number four is spargana.
Some parasites don't hit you hard right away.
They take time to do damage slowly,
until it's too late, lovely.
The spargana parasite is a very rare parasite
that latches onto a part of the body, usually, the brain,
and feasts upon it for up to 20 years.
During that time, you would probably only notice symptoms
like headaches, or, in extreme cases, seizures.
Found mostly in Asian regions like China, Korea, Japan,
and Thailand, over the last 100 years,
there have only been around 1,000 cases.
People contract it by eating undercooked meat from a bird,
reptile, or other amphibian.
You could also get it from contaminated water if you wander
too far from modern civilization in those places.
Oh boy, another water-borne creature.
You know what, I feel good about this.
Let's all go for a swim.
Number five is ascaris lumbricoides.
Sometimes, when worms get in ya,
they aren't all tiny and deadly,
no, sometimes, they can be large and deadly.
That's the case with the ascaris lumbricoides,
a giant roundworm that can grow up to
35 centimeters in length.
Known as the largest and most common
parasitic worm in humans, the organism is responsible
for the disease, ascariasis.
This infection has no symptoms in over 85% of cases,
when the number of worms inside of you is small,
however, when that number increases,
the symptoms begin to show,
such as shortness of breath and fever, early on.
Eventually, the symptoms can become abdominal pain
and swelling, and good ol' fashioned diarrhea.
Children are more commonly affected by it,
and if they are, in fact, hit with it,
can result in poor weight gain, malnutrition,
and learning problems.
In order to avoid these creatures, beware of food or drink
contaminated with escaris eggs from feces.
In other words, no poo sandwiches, kids,
no matter how cute that emogi is.
Number six is onchocerca volvulus.
Some people are born with blindness,
and sometimes it happens later in life, with age,
but there is a little worm out there
that can almost guarantee it happens
if it gets a hold of you.
Onchocerca volvulus is another roundworm,
but this little fella causes onchocerciasis,
or river blindness.
Found in Africa, it causes long-term corneal inflammation,
which thickens the corneal stroma, which causes blindness.
Humans are the sole hosts of the parasite,
and the vector, or carrier of the ringworm,
is the black fly.
Their common lifespan is one to two years,
and their presence in the bloodstream
does not cause the body's immune system
to react, or even attack it.
It will continue to remain inside the body
until it dies or degrades, then the body
just kind of sweeps it away.
It's good to know that through all of our evolution,
our bodies still cannot recognize
weird little foreign wormy things.
Thanks, body.
Number seven is toxoplasma gondii.
Now, aside from the grab bag of worms
that wanna get up all in ya and do
all sorts of horrible damage,
we also have what are called protozoan parasites.
Toxoplasma gondii is one such protozoan
that causes the disease toxoplasmosis.
The disease is usually asymptomatic, but,
depending on if the infected individual is already weakened,
the parasite can cause numerous illnesses
and damage throughout the body.
It's actually very common among humans
and can be found in any warm-blooded animal,
and it's worldwide, but don't worry,
because in order to avoid it, you, basically,
just have to practice common hygiene techniques,
like not eating raw meat and ingesting food or water
from fece-ridden areas.
Interestingly, a number of studies have actually suggested
that infection may cause subtle behaviorial
or personality changes, but evidence is limited.
Yeah, I never have personality changes,
Never, a-ha.
(clears throat)
Okay, yep.
Make an appointment for the doctor.
Number eight is trypanosoma brucei.
Another protozoa steps into the ring.
Only this time, its goal is to keep you
from meeting the sandman.
The trypanosoma brucei is a type of protozoan parasite
that causes African trypanosomiasis,
also known as sleeping sickness.
Like many parasites, the carrier is an insect,
and, in this case, it's the tsetse fly.
When going from fly to human, the parasite undergoes
a complex, morphological change.
It's one of the few pathogens in the world
that can cross the blood-brain barrier
found in the central nervous system.
There is currently an urgent necessity
for a new form of drug therapy,
since the current treatments have been fatal to patients.
The sleeping sickness name references the fact
that the second stage of the disease brings with it
confusion, poor coordination, numbness,
and, of course, trouble sleeping.
For you students out there looking to pull all-nighters,
don't you be gettin' any ideas.
Trust me, just stick with Red Bull.
It's really not any safer, but it's not a fly.
Number nine is the itch mite.
Many parasites get right inside you,
but some barely breach the surface
while still causing enormous pain.
Sarcoptes scabiei, or itch mites, are parasitic anthropods
that burrow into your skin and
cause scabies and itchy rashes.
This is formed because the impregnated female
has tunneled under your skin and left a litter of eggs.
This will give you itchy skin, along with red blotches,
pain, and copious amounts of pus,
all from these little squatters pitching tents
in the hair follicles of your skin.
Humans are not the only lucky ones
to be vulnerable to this infection,
so can cats, dogs, and, pretty much, every other mammal.
You know, nature is pretty and all,
but now that I know these things exist,
I won't be hiking any time soon.
Number ten, the candiru fish.
The candiru fish is a cute little tadpole fella
that goes by another cute name, the vampire fish.
I'm going to talk specifically to the gentlemen,
just for a moment.
Guys, this thing likes to go up the urethra of your penis
and just chills out there for a while.
Commonly found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, and Peru, these monstrosities wait
until a human urinates in water before it jumps up the penis
and worms its way into your body, eew.
It then uses its poisonous barbs to hold itself in place,
while it feeds on the fleshy membranes of your situation.
One poor fella even claimed that it chewed its way
from his urethra to his testicles,
but it's believed that the fish's teeth
aren't strong enough to do this,
so that case remains unconfirmed, thank God.
This fish is like Mother Nature's defense
against peeing in her pool.
♫ Nightmares for everyone, la-la-la-la-la ™ ♫
That's it for this video, guys.
Thank you so much for watching.
I just wanted to remind you that I am on Twitter.
(cawing like a bird)
That was really just an excuse to do my bird impression.
Twitter's the place where you guys get
up-to-the-minute updates about what's going on in my life,
as well as what I might just be thinking about
at that moment, while I'm on the pooper.
If that sounds good to you guys,
and you haven't followed me yet,
now would be the perfect time to do that,
my handle is Matthew Santoro, and get on that.
(caws)
As always, if you enjoyed this video,
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Have a great day, guys, and I will see you later,
on both my second channel and my social media,
specifically, Twitter.
(caws)
I am weird.
Heh, peace.
(electronic music)