4 Parasites That Want To Invade Your Brain

TRICHINELLA SPIRALIS, A PARASITIC ROUNDWORM

Izvora via Wikimedia Commons

In the past month, two different 12-year-olds have made headlines after being hospitalized with an extremely rare, horrifying infection: the brain-eating amoeba

Found mostly in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hotsprings, Naegleria fowleri can travel up a person's nose and into the brain, where it goes to work destroying brain tissue. Most cases in the U.S.--32 were reported between 2001 and 2010--have occurred in the warm Southeast, according to CNN.

The Florida Department of Health issued a warning against people swimming in warm, shallow water after seventh grader Zachary Reyna contracted the parasite Aug. 3.
NAEGLERIA FOWLERI LIFECYCLES

CDC

The Case Of The Lost Pork Tapeworm
Common in Africa, Asia and Latin America, adult Taenia solium tapeworms can live inside the human intestinal tract, producing eggs that its human host then expels fecally. As an eye-opening feature in [Discover describes, the eggs can get swept up by pigs as the animals forage for food. The larvae hatch in a pig's stomach and make their way into its bloodstream, eventually arriving at its muscles, where it will likely be eaten by a human in, say, a pork taco.

Read More at:
https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/parasites-want-invade-your-brain#page-2

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