This is part 1 in “Parasites: Our Uninvited Guests”
This series will explore the parasites, including what they are, how we get them, and how we get rid of them.
For many Americans, when the word parasite is mentioned, they associate it with traveling overseas and consuming contaminated food or water. However, parasitic infections are much more common than you likely realize.
Parasites are organisms that live on or in a host organism of another species. They depend on their host to survive, pulling nutrients from the host. Parasites vary greatly in size, with some being microscopic and living inside fat or red blood cells, while larger worm-like parasites will survive in the brain, gut, liver, muscles, and other areas of the body.
Major Types of Parasites
There are a wide variety of parasites that can infect humans, but they break down into three distinguishable categories:
Ectoparasites
Ectoparasites are bugs that attach to skin to feed on skin tissue or blood. Examples of these parasites include ticks, mosquitoes, lice, flies, fleas, mites, and bed bugs. Some ectoparasites carry other pathogens, such as Lyme disease from ticks or West Nile virus from mosquitoes, that are transmitted to the host human.
Protozoa
Protozoa parasites are microscopic in size, and they can easily multiply and spread in humans to cause intense health problems. A few common protozoan parasites include:
