Your worst nightmare

One of the scariest modules I took up in my undergrad days was Parasitology. I remember, after an hour of jaw dropping revelations in which Prof Ip regaled us with the evil doings of Schistosomiasis, Leshmaniasis, River blindness, Elephantiasis and the ubiquitous tape worm accompanied by disturbingly graphic pictures of inflated scrotum as big as a sack of rice, tape worms several metres long etcetera etcetera, I headed straight to the pharmacy after classes for a de-worming dose, just to make sure. And I suspect I wasn't the only one freaked out enough to do so either. Since then, this knowledge had stuck on to me enough to prevent me from jumping into less than pristine rivers and streams (especially in Indonesia, where the same stretch of river is used for washing, cooking and crapping in), but not enough for me to avoid them altogether, since the nature of my 'work' means that I do have to wade into knee high freshwater bodies once in a while.

Furthermore, it is no consolation that I actually do know somebody who have had a brain operation to take out a tape worm cyst lodged in his noggin. It is unfortunate, since the cysticercus (the term for the cycst forming larval stage) had definitely wandered up there by mistake. In the first place, humans are not the natural host for the larval cystic stage (pigs are) , and secondly, cysts are usually found in muscle or subcutaneous tissue. This is a case of a double boo-boo, or extremely bad luck I suppose. I've had the experience of gingerly putting my fingers on his head to feel his brain (The bit of skull that used to cover it is in a -80C freezer somewhere). It is a strange feeling, to touch a soft warm brain underneath a thin layer of scalp and hair, and it fills me with morbid fascination. And if he tilts his head to one side, I can actually feel his brain 'ooze out' (eeeks!). That is one helluva cool party trick, if you ask me.

Anyway, I bring this up today because I got re-acquainted with the wonderful of parasites again the last couple of days. LHam finally returned to me my book, 'Parasite Rex' (author: Carl Zimmer) after holding on to it for moons. Infect (hahaha), I think I might have had a close call with Leishmania before. All this cavorting around on tropical beaches with sandflies as constant companians (sandflies are vectors for L. major). I am nursing a hideous scab on my foot at the moment, and while I'm very sure it wasn't a sandfly kiss, alarm bells are ringing and I'm doing myself no favours by reading the book. Gah.

Go read Parasite Rex. It will entertain and certainly educate you more than any Hollywood Alien/Predator type movie. And unlike Hollywood, these horror stories are real. Guaranteed conversation pieces for anyone who likes to gross other people out.