Malaria

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jNHd8uxRpyuFjobVTdZpBWBU0G9QD9BO4JTG0

This article is about a new vaccine for malaria that may help in Africa. This new vaccine may be able to help prevent up to 50% of the cases of malaria in children. This new vaccine is in the final stage of testing. This vaccine would be the first against human parasite, and may be on the market in three to five years. This article also briefly describes what malaria is and the cause. This new vaccine, although only able to help 50% of children is better than anything we have, and since over a million children die from malaria a year, cutting that in half is a huge step forward. A combined amount of over 500 million dollars has been put towards this new vaccine. Organizations are also trying to make sure that the pricing for this vaccine will never be a problem for anyone.

Bed Bug's

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/11/10/bed-bugs-so-bad-in-toronto-they-ll-soon-spread-on-transit-in-theatres-experts-warn.aspx

This article is describing the epidemic of bed bugs plaguing Toronto right now. The infestation has become so bad that the bed bugs now leave the home with a person to latch onto others at work, in the subway etc. The bugs are everywhere, not just in low income parts of town. 1,500 reports of bed bug infestations to Toronto Public Health were recorded between March, 2008 to October, 2008. There were only 46 reports in 2003, the first time complaints of bed bugs were recorded. Most complaints were given by people in the downtown area. These parasites breed easily, and are immune to certain chemicals so the fight to get rid of them will be difficult.

Science Made Cool

http://sciencemadecool.com/weekly_parasite/

This website has a “Friday parasite” every Friday the author writes another article on a parasite. The author gives a very personal type of writing style which is much different from the writing style I have taken on. The author takes a big interest in the parasites and what their effects are. I really admire the way this author incorporated his own personal thoughts into something that is science related and based on a lot of facts. There are also many other topics on this website that does not relate to parasites, but might be interesting to read. For example there are also topics on; travel, religion, inventions, film etc.

C-Health Website

http://chealth.canoe.ca/index.asp?relation_id=3431

This is a website that provides articles about people’s health. They also have links for information for men, women and children. This website contains information on parasites and gives you full information on what causes the parasite, medication to get rid of the parasite and symptoms. It also gives you videos and you are able to ask an expert. This site gives a good amount of information on parasites you may have, and gives you the tools to understand the parasite better.

Guinea worm in Ethiopia and Ghana

http://en.afrik.com/article16250.html

This article talks about guinea worm disease, and how African countries are now fighting the infection. This disease is still present in 6 African countries, in Ghana and Ethiopia they are close to getting rid of this disease altogether. They are preventing this disease from spreading by filtering drinking water that comes from ponds and pools and preventing people with open wounds to enter the pond. Also, they are now repairing faulty water pumps so that if a water supply breaks down, people will not turn to disease ridden water. In these African countries if you get this disease and are an adult you will most likely be put out of work because of the pain, if you are a child you are bedridden until the worm decides to leave your body, causing many children to miss school. This article also describes the disease in small detail.

Worms May Be Allergy Defence

http://www.canada.com/health/Parasites+allergy+defence/2116325/story.html

This article is telling the reader about allergies, and their new hypothesis that being exposed to worms or other parasites early in life may help to prevent allergies for children in the future. Because of the lack of bacteria today in more well developed countries, immune systems will attack something they mistake as harmful causing allergies to form. This article shows that a factor in allergies may depend on where you live geographically. Studies show that where worms are prevalent in school age children there is less chance of allergies. Also, studies will show that children that live on farms have a smaller chance of developing allergies; they believe this is because of their exposure to viruses and bacteria found in dirt and animal feces. This article gives many more studies from around the world that help support the hypothesis that worms can help prevent allergies from developing.

Sore Spot

Guinea Worm Disease

Dracunculiasis

The guinea worm is one of the best documented human parasites, with tales of its behavior reaching as far back as the second century BCE. It was once prevalent in 20 nations in Asia and Africa. This parasite remains endemic in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The parasite will take on a human host.

Cause

Guinea worm disease is only contracted when a person drinks stagnant water contaminated with the larvae of the Guinea worm, or walks un-protected in infected waterways.

The larvae develop for approximately two weeks inside copepods. At this stage the larvae can cause Guinea worm disease if the infected larvae are not filtered from drinking water. Once inside the body stomach acid digests the copepods, but not the Guinea worm larvae sheltered inside. These larvae find their way to the body cavity where the female mates with a male Guinea worm. This will take place approximately three months after infection. The male worm dies after mating and is absorbed into the body. The female, which contains larvae, burrows into the deeper connective tissue or adjacent to long bones or joints of the extremities. The male Guinea worm is typically much smaller,1.2–2.9 centimeters, 0.5–1.1 inches long, than the female, which, as an adult, can grow to between 2 and 3 feet long and be as thick as a spaghetti noodle. Infected persons often immerse the affected limb in water to relieve the burning sensation caused when the guinea worm creates a blister to leave the body. Once the blister or open sore is submerged in water the adult female releases hundreds of thousands of Guinea worm larvae, contaminating the water supply

Symptoms

Infected persons do not usually have symptoms until about one year after they become infected. A few days to hours before the worm emerges, the person may develop a fever, swelling, and pain in the area.

Medication

There is no vaccine or medicine to treat or prevent Guinea worm disease. Once a Guinea worm emerges a person must wrap the live worm around a piece of gauze or a stick to extract it from the body. This long, painful process can take up to a month. Although Guinea worm disease is usually not fatal, the wound where the worm emerges could develop a secondary bacterial infection such as tetanus, which may be life-threatening, also if the worm breaks while you are extracting it, it will usually cause an infection in the area that could be fatal.

Sources
http://www.dhpe.org/infect/guinea.html

Raw Parasite

Fish Tapeworm

Diphyllobothrium

The fish tapeworms host is both humans and animals that eat raw fish. Because of the changing diets around the world, this parasite is emerging in new places, like Brazil. Infections are most common in countries where eating raw fish is common e.g. Japan, North America, Asia and parts of Europe. There is no clear point in time when Diphyllobothrium latum and related species was “discovered” in humans, but it is clear that diphyllobothriasis has been endemic in human populations for a very long time

Cause

This parasite is a tapeworm infection, with a tapeworm species called Diphyllobothrium latum. The infection is called diphyllobothriasis and usually results from eating undercooked contaminated fish.

After ingestion of the infected fish, the plerocercoids develop into immature adults and then into mature adult tapeworms which will live in the small intestine. The adults attach to the intestinal lining by means of the two bilateral grooves of their scolex. The adults can reach up to 30 feet in length. One or several of the tape-like proglottid segments regularly detach from the main body of the worm and release immature eggs in fresh water to start the cycle over again. Immature eggs are discharged from the proglottids (up to 1,000,000 eggs per day per worm) and are passed in the feces.

Symptoms

Symptoms include; diarrhoea, weight loss, abdominal distension, intermittent abdominal cramping, vomiting, and flatulence. Some patients may develop a deficiency of vitamin B 12 that could lead to, in very few cases, to megaglobalistic anemia. If the infection is really severe, intestinal obstruction may develop as a complication.

Medication

The medication used to get rid of this parasite is either using either niclosamide or praziquantel. The incubation period in humans, after which eggs begin to appear in the feces is typically 4-6 weeks, but can vary from as short as 2 weeks to as long as 2 years. The tapeworm can live up to 20 years.

Sources
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10097
http://www.medindia.net/Patients/PatientInfo/tapeworm_fish.htm

Me

For my journalism course I have decided to blog about Parasites. This is not the most researched topic by most people my age; in truth I don’t even like science classes. But this topic is interesting to me though because of the grotesque nature of some of these parasites. The people reading this blog will probably be lovers of science or just interesting facts about what can grow inside you, as well as your pet. The purpose of my blog is to describe the causes of these parasites and what they do inside the body of their host, or carrier.

To help me express what parasites do and how grotesque they look I post many pictures of the parasites themselves, and the effects they have on the host or carrier. I would also like to learn how to post videos so readers can better see the effects parasites have on the host.

The following are my main competitors in the world of blogging about parasites. Although there were not many blogs concerning parasites these three seemed to be well written, diverse in their nature of research and read by a decent amount of people. My blog has the same kind of information, as well as diversity of information with different topics and weekly blog updates. I think I have more pictures to show readers then the other blogs I am competing with. I blog about an array of different parasites; ranging from humans to animals to insects.

Main competitors

http://www.allaboutparasites.com/parasites-blog.html

http://www.sciencemadecool.com/weekly_parasite/

http://www.goldbamboo.com/blogs-t8232.html

There is nothing too personal about my writing. This is the same style used by other sites blogging about parasites. This topic is not usually a very personal one unless the parasite infects you. This will be a strictly third person account of parasites and their symptoms, origins and causes.

Cycles

Lancet Flukes
(Dicrocoelium lanceolatum)

Lancet flukes are found throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australia. The parasite tends to be found in areas that favor the primary hosts, such as fields. Much of what is presently known about lancet flukes is the result of the work of the naturalist Wendell Krull.

The lancet fluke’s final host is a cow, but it goes through a cycle of cow, snail, and ant. This cycle repeats when the newly matured lancet flukes lay eggs in the cows stomach.

Cause

Snails eat the dung from the cow becoming infected by the flukes; the flukes will then dig through the snail’s digestive tract into the gland that creates slime. As the snail moves, their infected slime covers whatever it comes into contact with. The next carrier for the flukes is the ant which eats the slime the snails leave behind. The flukes then begin their mind control on the ants. To all the other ants, the infected ant is normal. It collects food and does other normal ant-like things. If the colony knew that the ant was infected it would be unable to stay as a part of the colony. But at night, the infected ant climbs a blade of grass and waits to be ingested by a cow. If the ant is not digested by a cow the parasite makes the ant climb the blade of grass every night until it is. When the ant is finally swallowed, it is drowned in cud, bursting open as a swarm of flukes infect the cows stomach, the flukes complete the cycle by penetrating the cow’s liver, they then become adult egg producers. Lancet flukes also infect sheep as their primary host.

In Humans

Due to the specific nature of this parasite’s life cycle, human infections are generally rare. But, humans and other herbivorous mammals can also become primary hosts through ingestion of infected ants.

Symptoms in humans

Symptoms can include biliary colic and other digestive disturbances; including bloating and diarrhea. In heavier infections inflammation of the liver may occur.

Lancet fluke in liver

Sources
http://www.damninteresting.com/a-fluke-of-nature
http://www.answers.com/topic/lancet-fluke