Eaten Alive!

The world is full of roaming organisms and animals/insects that feast on human flesh and blood. This is an article about some of them. There are of course many others like the following three:

Lice - they depend exclusively on blood, and can absorb more than their own body weight.

Vampire bats – these feast only on a liquid, red diet. They mainly attack cattle, but in South America, have been known to feed on human blood, dipping into tiny babies left sleeping in their hammocks hanging from the rafters of their parent’s shacks.

Fleas – these cannot reproduce until and unless they have had a blood meal. Their young survive on their parent’s dung, but mainly on our dead skin which we’ve shed. They can lay dormant and without food for up to a year, and only stir when vibrations warn them of a potential host nearby.

In this article, I’ve mainly concentrated on the parasites which are not so common.

Cancrum Oris

Cancrum Oris, also known as Noma, was first described in 1848. This disease affects mostly children who’re less than 10 years old.

It is not widely known in the Western world because it occurs mostly in developing countries. This is part of the reason its effects are so devastating – treatment is not readily available.

This disease is thought to be related to poor hygiene, but can also occur in association with other diseases like Measles and Typhoid, when the child’s immune system has been compromised.

Children who contract Noma are invariably malnourished.

Once Noma takes hold, the flesh around the mucous membrane of the oral cavity and related areas such as cheek, nose and palate, are quickly consumed.

I am not allowed to show you the pictures I found of children affected with Noma. If you would like to see them, I’m afraid that you’ll have to find them on your own.

Necrotizing Fasciitis

(Neck-roe-tie-zing fa-shee-eye-tis) This disease is commonly known as the flesh eating disease. It has been known to eat through the human body at a rate of almost 1inch per hour. Death can sometimes occur within 18 hours.

The flesh eating disease hits when a cut or bruise has been infected. If there is more pain than expected, accompanied by a high fever, and a rapid spreading of the infection, chances are, the flesh eating disease has been contracted. This is very rare though, so there is no need for crazy, unnecessary panic.

Sometimes infection with this disease can follow a minor wound or injury, or a recent bout of a chickenpox infection.

I am also not allowed to show you these pictures, as they’re too graphic.

Tapeworms

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A tape worm can measure up to 30 feet long. The image on the left represents what its head actually looks like.

Tapeworms imbed themselves (with those dangerous-looking suckers) into your intestines and live on whatever you’ve digested. They do not have to feed from their mouths, as their entire skin will eat for them. Not only this, tapeworms can produce one million babies in one day.

They have the capacity of re-growth, so if one piece of them breaks off, and the head remains inside the host’s body, the tapeworm will re-grow itself.

Symptoms include rapid weight loss, upset and discomfort in the tummy area, along with diarrhoea and water retention. Tape worms are relatively common in areas where meat is not thoroughly cooked, since they are known to be contracted though the flesh of farm animals like cattle.

Hookworms

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The picture on the left is what the mouth of a hookworm looks like. They repay your welcome by attaching themselves to the intestinal wall, then they suck away at nutrients, tissue and blood.

They can cause anaemia, a feeling of being unwell, and lack of energy. If you suffer from iron deficiency, you may want to think twice about hookworms.

Candiru

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The Candiru is a tiny catfish which lives in the Amazon river. It’s one of the tiniest vertebrates on earth. It’s a parasite, but not mainly to humans. However, if you cross paths with a Candiru, it’s not known to be particularly fussy.

It waits in the water until it smells or tastes urine. Upon doing so, the tiny fish will sprint with lighting speed to the source of the urine. It wriggles up the passage from which the urine originates, spreads its spikes and firmly attaches itself. Once this is done, it nibbles away to make a hole into the nearest artery so that it can feast itself on blood.

This source of blood, has many times, been human – generally men.

After the candiru is finished feeding, it becomes too large to swim out of the urethra. This leaves only immediate surgery to remove the ever growing, ever feeding fish from the depths of the urethra.

More than 1,000 types of parasites are said to freeload on the human race. This is true for both the developing and the developed countries. This article is not meant to shock or scare, but to inform.

Parasites can affect our general health by weakening our immune systems. Many times symptoms like anaemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, joint pain, water retention etc., are treated without consideration given to the possibility that parasites may be the root of these problems.

What can you do to help

Educate yourself about proper food handling and build up your own immune system by eating right, drinking enough water and getting involved in an exercise programme.

Wash your hands after using the toilet, and keep your home clean. I am not a fan of anti-bacterial cleaning. I do believe that soap and hot water, with a helping of soda crystals and some good elbow grease does the job well enough.

I kept away from a sterile home when the kids were babies because I wanted them to build up a healthy immune system. Nevertheless, cleaning plays a major role in keeping your surroundings safe from these parasites.

Knock them out, before they get to you!