What is the estimated number of people infected with parasitic worms globally?

Three and a half billion people worldwide are infected with parasitic worms.

How often does malaria kill a child?

Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds.

What was the cause of the Milwaukee outbreak in 1993?

The Milwaukee outbreak in 1993 was caused by the cryptosporidium parasite that contaminated the city's water supply.

What is the primary method of transmission for malaria?

Malaria is primarily transmitted by the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

What complex issues are associated with parasitic infections?

Parasitic infections present complexities like evolving resistance against treatments, difficulty in vaccination development, and challenges in water safety.

What are some examples of ectoparasites?

Examples of ectoparasites include mosquitoes, fleas, head lice, and pubic lice.

How do parasites invade the human body?

Parasites invade the human body typically through ingestion of contaminated food or water, sexual intercourse, or bites from arthropod vectors.

What is one successful program mentioned for controlling parasitic infections?

The oncochiasis control program is mentioned as a successful initiative that protected the vision of over 600,000 Africans.

Are there any effective vaccines for malaria?

Research is ongoing, but no practical vaccine against malaria currently exists.

What motivates researchers in the field of parasitology?

Researchers in parasitology are often motivated by humanitarian goals to better the world and control parasitic spread.

Parasites Eating Us Alive

00:45:39

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqcQ_Ycro4

Zusammenfassung

TLDRThe video provides a detailed overview of the impact of parasitic infections on human health, noting that billions are affected globally by various forms of parasites. It highlights the 1993 Milwaukee outbreak of cryptosporidium, revealing how contaminated water can lead to a public health crisis. The film explores different types of parasites, including malaria, schistosomiasis, and hookworms, discussing their transmission methods, symptoms, and the challenges in developing treatments or vaccines. The evolution of these parasites poses ongoing difficulties for public health efforts, necessitating innovative research and preventive measures to control and reduce infections.

Mitbringsel

🌍 Three and a half billion people are infected with parasitic worms.
⏳ Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds globally.
🚰 The Milwaukee outbreak was caused by water contamination.
🦟 Malaria is transmitted through Anopheles mosquitoes.
🔬 Parasites are evolving and challenging treatment methods.
💧 Clean water is crucial to prevent parasitic infections.
🌡️ Vaccination against parasites remains a significant challenge.
❤️ Humanitarian motives drive research in parasitology.
📉 Malaria significantly impacts economic productivity in affected regions.
💡 Innovative control programs have shown success in reducing infections.

Zeitleiste

00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The documentary highlights the global scale of parasitic infections, affecting billions of people and leading to severe health issues such as malformations, blindness, and death. Parasitic diseases, particularly malaria, are depicted as significant threats to public health around the world, with rates of infection staggering and often going untreated due to their complexity.
00:05:00 - 00:10:00
In April 1993, Milwaukee faced a terrifying outbreak of cryptosporidiosis, urging health authorities to rapidly seek answers as hundreds of thousands became infected. The city’s water system was discovered to be contaminated, demonstrating the ease with which parasites can spread through water, leading to widespread illness and panic.
00:10:00 - 00:15:00
The outbreak exposed the unexpected vulnerability of the municipal water supply to parasites, with cryptosporidium identified as the main culprit. This outbreak resulted in a significant number of illnesses and ultimately, deaths, particularly among individuals with weakened immune systems.
00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Parasitic organisms are defined, highlighting their often harmful presence in hosts, with humans being common victims. The documentary identifies how nearly all humans harbor some form of parasites, and notes their historical persistence in human evolution.
00:20:00 - 00:25:00
The documentary explains the nature of parasitic infections and differentiates between types, focusing on single-celled organisms and multicellular worms. It emphasizes the evolutionary skill of parasites to invade hosts, adapt, and elude medical treatments, showcasing their complex life cycles and survival mechanisms.
00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The transmission of parasites to humans is discussed, primarily through ingestion or bites from arthropods. The risk posed by vectors is underscored, especially in tropical regions, where these organisms thrive and often lead to debilitating diseases such as lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis.
00:30:00 - 00:35:00
Imported foods and contaminated drinking water increase exposure to parasites, including sushi-borne anasakis. The documentary highlights both the human and environmental risks parasites pose in modern-day societies and emphasizes the existing challenge in combating foodborne infections.
00:35:00 - 00:40:00
The impact of malarial infections is examined through personal stories, illustrating the real consequences of malaria on human lives, particularly on children. Despite medical advances, malaria remains a major killer globally, with many failing to recover once severely infected due to the parasite's virulence and the immune response triggered within the host.
00:40:00 - 00:45:39
While some approaches have succeeded in controlling certain parasitic infections, eradication remains elusive. The documentary showcases examples of control efforts like the oncochiasis control program and highlights the ongoing need for research, surveillance, and innovative strategies to manage and treat parasitic diseases effectively.

Mind Map

Video-Fragen und Antworten

What is the estimated number of people infected with parasitic worms globally?
Three and a half billion people worldwide are infected with parasitic worms.
How often does malaria kill a child?
Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds.
What was the cause of the Milwaukee outbreak in 1993?
The Milwaukee outbreak in 1993 was caused by the cryptosporidium parasite that contaminated the city's water supply.
What is the primary method of transmission for malaria?
Malaria is primarily transmitted by the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
What complex issues are associated with parasitic infections?
Parasitic infections present complexities like evolving resistance against treatments, difficulty in vaccination development, and challenges in water safety.
What are some examples of ectoparasites?
Examples of ectoparasites include mosquitoes, fleas, head lice, and pubic lice.
How do parasites invade the human body?
Parasites invade the human body typically through ingestion of contaminated food or water, sexual intercourse, or bites from arthropod vectors.
What is one successful program mentioned for controlling parasitic infections?
The oncochiasis control program is mentioned as a successful initiative that protected the vision of over 600,000 Africans.
Are there any effective vaccines for malaria?
Research is ongoing, but no practical vaccine against malaria currently exists.
What motivates researchers in the field of parasitology?
Researchers in parasitology are often motivated by humanitarian goals to better the world and control parasitic spread.

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Untertitel

Automatisches Blättern:

00:00:07
three and a half billion people
00:00:09
worldwide are infected with parasitic
00:00:11
worms
00:00:13
malaria kills a child every 30 seconds
00:00:18
entire african villages are taken down
00:00:20
by predatory parasites
00:00:22
that leave villagers grossly deformed
00:00:25
blind
00:00:26
or dead deadly waterborne illness
00:00:30
infested fruits and vegetables and
00:00:32
debilitating lyme disease threaten
00:00:35
communities throughout america
00:00:38
every day hookworm sucked the blood of
00:00:41
1.5 million people
00:00:44
[Music]
00:00:45
parasites voracious animals that live
00:00:48
off the very essence of our being
00:00:51
thriving since the dawn of man so
00:00:54
complex no vaccine will touch them
00:00:58
parasites are evolving they appear to be
00:01:02
indomitable and they are
00:01:05
eating us alive
00:01:17
april 1993 a strange illness creeped
00:01:21
across milwaukee
00:01:23
personnel called in sick to hospitals
00:01:25
and businesses
00:01:27
school classrooms stood eerily empty
00:01:30
paul nanas
00:01:31
was head of wisconsin's health
00:01:32
department as the numbers grew
00:01:35
from see there were 100 people that
00:01:37
presented to the emergency rooms to
00:01:39
several hundred people
00:01:41
to now a thousand people obviously by
00:01:44
then we knew there was something
00:01:45
significant going on
00:01:47
for five days doctors scientists and
00:01:49
administrators
00:01:50
desperately looked for answers while
00:01:53
hundreds of thousands of the city's
00:01:54
residents were writhing
00:01:56
wretching and rapidly wasting away
00:02:00
if it was a contained neighborhood
00:02:02
likely to be food
00:02:03
if it was uniformly dispersed across the
00:02:06
city given wind patterns it would be air
00:02:08
but what began to emerge was a pattern
00:02:10
of illness that kind of mirrored
00:02:13
the water distribution in milwaukee
00:02:17
the pressure mounted from a terrified
00:02:19
public in a frenzied media
00:02:21
the city's water system was infested
00:02:24
but with what finally one doctor on
00:02:27
milwaukee's east side
00:02:29
remembered his medical school training
00:02:30
in tropical disease
00:02:32
he checked his patients for parasites
00:02:35
the lab tests came back
00:02:36
positive cryptosporidium
00:02:39
a tiny one-celled parasite had lodged
00:02:42
itself in the intestines of 400
00:02:44
000 of this city's residents and even
00:02:47
when we learned that it was
00:02:48
cryptosporidium
00:02:50
we still didn't know what the source was
00:02:52
and whether our current water was
00:02:54
currently infected
00:02:55
and until we knew that we only knew part
00:02:57
of the equation
00:02:59
they had their culprit but the scare was
00:03:02
just beginning
00:03:04
paul nanus and the city of milwaukee
00:03:06
were in the midst of the largest
00:03:08
parasitic outbreak ever recorded in the
00:03:10
united states
00:03:13
nausea cramping some vomiting but
00:03:16
particularly diarrhea and the diarrhea
00:03:19
in this instance the diarrheal disease
00:03:21
was terribly severe
00:03:23
there were people that had 20 and 25
00:03:25
episodes
00:03:27
of diarrhea in a day i mean they just
00:03:30
couldn't
00:03:31
get out of their homes they had to stay
00:03:33
home
00:03:34
nobody ever believed i mean even when we
00:03:37
knew
00:03:37
it was waterborne we identified the
00:03:40
source we knew what it was
00:03:42
there was still this almost incredulous
00:03:45
kind of reactions that how could our
00:03:47
water
00:03:48
be the source of this i mean nobody
00:03:50
believed that it could be water
00:03:53
the shock deepened at the news of the
00:03:55
first death
00:03:56
then another by the time the epidemic
00:03:59
played itself out
00:04:00
200 people were dead from complications
00:04:03
from the cryptosporidium parasite
00:04:08
it was difficult for healthy people to
00:04:10
recover
00:04:11
from the episode so you can understand
00:04:15
what happened to people that didn't have
00:04:16
healthy immune systems they just
00:04:18
couldn't
00:04:19
shed it those who died had compromised
00:04:22
immune systems
00:04:23
people with hiv people already sick the
00:04:26
very old
00:04:27
and the very young that first three
00:04:29
weeks of it
00:04:31
were incredibly intense media wise the
00:04:33
public the aids
00:04:35
activist community that were marching
00:04:37
down through the city of milwaukee
00:04:39
wanting to know why people that they
00:04:42
knew and cared about were dying and what
00:04:43
were we doing about it
00:04:45
as i mentioned here we didn't have
00:04:46
answers that's a terrible feeling
00:04:52
parasitism is kind of a lifestyle
00:04:55
and uh and a parasite is an organism
00:04:58
that
00:04:59
lives on or in another organism which we
00:05:03
refer to as the host
00:05:05
and does so either at the detriment of
00:05:09
the host or
00:05:10
certainly at no benefit of the host so
00:05:12
you can have some parasites that really
00:05:14
don't cause a lot of harm
00:05:16
but they certainly aren't beneficial to
00:05:18
the host there are many parasites that
00:05:19
actually cause
00:05:21
great harm and in fact can kill the host
00:05:25
when you look at the human condition and
00:05:27
you say what is a human being
00:05:29
you could redefine what a human being is
00:05:31
in terms of its
00:05:32
ability to harbor parasites
00:05:36
almost all of our internal organs all of
00:05:39
our blood spaces
00:05:40
all of our hollow organs offers
00:05:43
opportunities for organisms to live in
00:05:45
them
00:05:46
and when they do and when they cause us
00:05:48
harm
00:05:49
we call those parasites parasites are
00:05:52
probably the most common agents
00:05:54
of human disease on our planet i often
00:05:57
like to say that if
00:05:58
carl sagan did not go into astrophysics
00:06:01
but instead chose to
00:06:02
launch a career in medicine or
00:06:04
biological sciences he would have had to
00:06:06
become a parasitologist
00:06:08
why because this is the only group of
00:06:11
organisms where we can really talk about
00:06:13
billions
00:06:14
and billions of people being infected
00:06:18
parasites tenacious behavior toward
00:06:20
their human hosts
00:06:21
is nothing new they have been at work
00:06:24
since the beginning of life
00:06:26
itself and no matter what form of life
00:06:29
has
00:06:30
existed on earth there has always been
00:06:32
parasites
00:06:34
always that's the nature of things so
00:06:36
from the very beginning
00:06:38
we assume parasitism parasites are very
00:06:41
clever though
00:06:42
in the way that they've evolved over
00:06:44
time and the mechanisms they've evolved
00:06:46
to
00:06:47
infect new hosts or move into new areas
00:06:49
where they previously haven't been
00:06:52
just the the sheer complexity of some of
00:06:54
the life cycles
00:06:55
that they've developed or have developed
00:06:57
over time in their association with
00:06:59
animals
00:07:00
it's just amazing as life progresses and
00:07:03
becomes more complex
00:07:04
and develops defense mechanisms against
00:07:07
those parasites
00:07:08
and excludes the common ones it now
00:07:11
has to put up with the highly evolved
00:07:13
parasites which have
00:07:14
also evolved along with those highly
00:07:17
evolved defense mechanisms
00:07:19
for stealth and entry mechanisms and
00:07:21
cunning and
00:07:22
guile so to speak we would give them
00:07:24
human characteristics
00:07:27
in fact in their own way the physical
00:07:30
structure of parasites
00:07:32
resembles that of our own they have
00:07:35
a complexity of structure and function
00:07:38
that is hard to believe
00:07:42
most of the parasites i work with have
00:07:44
structures that are just like man they
00:07:45
have
00:07:46
intestinal systems they have their own
00:07:49
kidneys they have a complex nervous
00:07:51
system
00:07:53
organisms such as bacteria and viruses
00:07:56
also require nourishment and protection
00:07:59
from a host
00:08:00
for survival the difference between
00:08:02
these microbiological organisms
00:08:05
and the classic parasite comes down to
00:08:08
size
00:08:09
usually when we talk about parasites we
00:08:11
talk about either single-celled or
00:08:13
larger organisms
00:08:15
we don't talk about smaller
00:08:18
organisms such as viruses for sure
00:08:22
and usually bacteria bacteria are
00:08:24
usually considered
00:08:25
kind of as a separate grouping
00:08:29
scientists group parasites into three
00:08:32
different categories
00:08:35
parasitologists will think about the
00:08:38
organisms that they study the parasites
00:08:41
along three major lines these would
00:08:44
include
00:08:45
simple single celled organisms
00:08:48
classically protozoan organisms
00:08:51
such as organisms that cause african
00:08:53
sleeping sickness
00:08:55
plasmodium which causes malaria
00:08:57
cryptosporidium which causes
00:08:59
cryptosporidiosis
00:09:00
which even despite their tiny size can
00:09:03
still be associated with devastating
00:09:05
disease
00:09:06
then there are larger multicellular
00:09:09
organisms generally referred to as
00:09:11
worms three different kinds of worms
00:09:13
that we classify as parasites
00:09:15
we have round worms uh like asterisk and
00:09:18
pinworm
00:09:19
uh we have flat worms that are not
00:09:21
segmented those are the schistosomes
00:09:23
and then finally we have the ones that
00:09:25
everybody is familiar with the tapeworms
00:09:26
that are segmented flat worms
00:09:28
and then there is a series of organisms
00:09:30
that are generally referred to as
00:09:32
ectoparasites
00:09:34
ecto meaning on so they don't live in
00:09:36
the host they live
00:09:37
on the host mosquitoes take our blood
00:09:39
for egg production
00:09:41
black flies suck our blood for egg
00:09:42
production we would consider fleas the
00:09:44
same thing
00:09:45
all of those are ectoparasites but
00:09:47
they're temporary parasites for the most
00:09:49
part
00:09:50
we know of a few that are not so
00:09:51
temporary though we can talk about head
00:09:53
lice we can talk about pubic lice and we
00:09:55
can talk about body lines
00:09:56
and in those cases they live on us
00:09:59
and they depend on us and we are their
00:10:02
home
00:10:04
in order for a parasitic infection to
00:10:07
take place
00:10:08
the parasites must first gain entry into
00:10:11
a suitable host
00:10:13
since parasites are perceived as being
00:10:15
everywhere
00:10:16
some of us think we can even catch them
00:10:18
by breathing in the air
00:10:19
this is not true there are really only
00:10:22
three different ways we can catch
00:10:23
the parasites the ones that we're
00:10:24
discussing and that is
00:10:27
we can eat them we can drink water
00:10:30
in which they have stages so that we can
00:10:33
catch them this way
00:10:35
there's even one we can catch by sexual
00:10:36
intercourse
00:10:38
but the vast majority of the ones that
00:10:40
we're really afraid of the ones that
00:10:42
cause the most suffering throughout the
00:10:43
world
00:10:44
are the ones that are transmitted by
00:10:46
arthropod vectors
00:10:48
a vector is generally thought of as
00:10:51
an organism that transmits a parasite
00:10:55
from one place to another from one stage
00:10:57
of its life cycle to another but we
00:11:00
don't
00:11:00
have to go to the parasites the
00:11:01
parasites will come to us they have
00:11:03
their own transportation system so to
00:11:05
speak
00:11:08
mosquito vectors are responsible for
00:11:10
transmitting some of the most
00:11:11
dangerous diseases on earth
00:11:15
one example is lymphatic filariasis
00:11:20
lymphatic filariasis which is also known
00:11:22
by its common name elephantiasis is a
00:11:25
vector-borne parasitic disease caused by
00:11:28
a
00:11:29
roundworm a nematode it's a very
00:11:32
widespread disease throughout the
00:11:34
tropics thought to
00:11:36
involve somewhere in the order of 120
00:11:38
million people or so
00:11:39
around the world for most people a
00:11:42
filariasis infection brings about only
00:11:45
mild side effects
00:11:48
but when the disease infests the
00:11:50
lymphatic system
00:11:52
severe pain and intense suffering result
00:11:56
the lymphatic channels can be in various
00:11:58
parts of the body
00:12:01
classically it's in the lower
00:12:02
extremities so the adult worms are in
00:12:05
the lymphatic channels of the legs
00:12:08
and it impedes the return flow of lymph
00:12:10
fluid
00:12:12
causing buildup of lymph fluid and
00:12:16
the subsequent swelling and then the
00:12:19
fibrotic reaction that the body has
00:12:21
over years and then the infections of
00:12:24
the skin that are caused
00:12:26
by the compromised lymphatic flow that
00:12:29
result in the fairly grotesque
00:12:33
classic elephantiasis of the lower
00:12:35
extremities
00:12:36
the common underlying result is
00:12:40
debility severe
00:12:43
inability to to perform one's one's
00:12:46
daily routine
00:12:50
the disease is very hard to diagnose in
00:12:53
its early stages
00:12:54
one of the the very frustrating things
00:12:56
about this
00:12:58
this parasitic infection is that in its
00:13:01
early stages it's it's clinically very
00:13:04
silent
00:13:05
so you can get fairly young children
00:13:07
that actually become infected with this
00:13:09
parasite
00:13:10
and unless you look in their blood to
00:13:12
see the
00:13:13
embryonic forms of the parasite you
00:13:16
wouldn't know that they were infected
00:13:18
and then very gradually over years as
00:13:20
they enter
00:13:21
puberty in adult life they will begin to
00:13:25
manifest
00:13:26
slight swellings of one leg or
00:13:29
a hydrocele or a swelling of the scrotum
00:13:32
that just gradually over time
00:13:34
gets bigger and bigger inexorably
00:13:37
once they reach that stage there's not
00:13:41
much that can be done medically to try
00:13:44
and cure them of that
00:13:47
parasites have lived both on and in us
00:13:50
since the beginning of man they have
00:13:53
evolved to develop specialized
00:13:55
techniques
00:13:56
to invade our bodies and evade our
00:13:59
defenses
00:14:00
while medical advances have bolstered
00:14:02
our ability to detect and treat
00:14:04
parasitic infections
00:14:06
the parasites continue their quest for
00:14:09
shelter
00:14:09
and sustenance within us
00:14:14
one method of infection is through our
00:14:17
dietary intake
00:14:20
imported foods have played a significant
00:14:22
part in the increase of parasitic
00:14:24
infections
00:14:25
in the u.s today
00:14:28
after the agricultural revolution and of
00:14:30
course with rapid transit
00:14:32
and with the ability to ship products
00:14:35
from one place to the other
00:14:36
in less than 18 hours parasites can come
00:14:39
to us now we don't have to go to them
00:14:41
any longer
00:14:42
so this raises the possibility for the
00:14:44
spread of parasites
00:14:46
in places that they never existed before
00:14:49
another interesting aspect of the whole
00:14:51
phenomenon of foodborne diseases is
00:14:54
a parasitic disease called anasakis
00:14:58
it's caused by a fish parasite
00:15:01
that is transmitted to humans when they
00:15:03
eat sushi which of course is uncooked
00:15:06
fish and this parasite which is a
00:15:10
normal parasite of fish can be acquired
00:15:14
by humans
00:15:15
and it causes a local invasion
00:15:18
of the gastrointestinal tract that in
00:15:20
some cases can mimic
00:15:22
stomach disease or appendicitis
00:15:26
in this country in the united states
00:15:28
we've had a
00:15:29
burgeoning sushi industry lots of people
00:15:32
eat sushi
00:15:32
in fact i eat sushi i eat it safely
00:15:36
why because we now know how this
00:15:38
parasite is transmitted uh
00:15:40
it requires the fish to sit around for a
00:15:43
while
00:15:44
in a non-fresh state now you can define
00:15:46
that any way you want
00:15:47
but in fact if you catch a fish and
00:15:49
place it on ice immediately
00:15:51
this parasite stays in the gut track to
00:15:53
those fish
00:15:54
if on the other hand you catch the fish
00:15:56
and it sits on the deck of the boat for
00:15:57
a while and warms up
00:15:58
the parasites will then crawl out of the
00:16:00
gut tissue into the meat of the fish
00:16:02
now when you put it on ice and bring it
00:16:04
in and make sushi out of that
00:16:06
you have the option at least of catching
00:16:08
that worm
00:16:10
we've become aware of that the fish that
00:16:13
are served in the sushi parlors of
00:16:14
america at least and i'm sure in japan
00:16:16
as well
00:16:17
is as fresh as the day it was caught
00:16:20
but not all food-borne parasitic
00:16:22
infections have been conquered
00:16:25
because of their insatiable appetite for
00:16:27
suitable hosts
00:16:28
parasites will always search out new
00:16:31
ways of infecting us
00:16:33
tapeworms are parasitic flatworms
00:16:37
that live in the intestine of humans
00:16:40
most commonly they're acquired through
00:16:43
the ingestion
00:16:44
of uncooked flesh that has the
00:16:47
larval stages of the parasite and there
00:16:50
appears to be
00:16:51
a tapeworm that corresponds to each type
00:16:54
of major
00:16:55
meat that's ingested for instance
00:16:57
there's a beef tapeworm
00:16:58
tina saginata there's a fish tapeworm
00:17:02
known as diphylobathrium latum there is
00:17:05
a pork tapeworm
00:17:06
named tinia soleum teeniacolium the pork
00:17:10
tapeworm has emerged as an
00:17:11
important infection not only in many
00:17:14
developing countries
00:17:15
but also in the united states as well
00:17:18
the parasite
00:17:19
is particularly prevalent in central
00:17:22
america
00:17:22
and in mexico and now the organism has
00:17:26
been
00:17:27
imported over the border to the point
00:17:29
where it has become a major infection
00:17:32
in u.s cities that are near these
00:17:35
countries so we find
00:17:36
high rates of tesolium infection in los
00:17:40
angeles and san diego and san antonio
00:17:43
and tucson arizona reason this is of
00:17:46
importance to note is because the larval
00:17:49
stages of the pork tapeworm
00:17:52
have been linked to an illness in the
00:17:54
brain
00:17:56
there is a syndrome associated with
00:17:59
solium
00:18:00
known as neurocystic psychosis that has
00:18:03
now become one of the leading causes of
00:18:05
epilepsy among children living in these
00:18:08
cities in the southwestern united states
00:18:11
the pork tapeworm the egg
00:18:14
when it's ingested into the human the
00:18:16
larva that emerges from that egg
00:18:19
and thinks it's in a pig the larva will
00:18:22
go and insist
00:18:23
in various parts of the human anatomy
00:18:26
unfortunately including and apparently
00:18:28
the parasite seems to have a tropism
00:18:31
for human neural tissue
00:18:34
so you can get cysts in the brain you
00:18:37
can get cysts in the eyes
00:18:39
you can get cysts in the musculature as
00:18:41
well
00:18:42
this disease is called cysticercosis
00:18:47
imported and undercooked food is not the
00:18:49
only way we can ingest a parasite
00:18:53
fresh clean water can never be taken for
00:18:56
granted
00:18:57
and the water we drink in our homes can
00:19:00
be tainted
00:19:01
one of the most common parasites in the
00:19:03
united states
00:19:04
besides cryptosporidium is giardia
00:19:07
lamblia
00:19:08
majority of lamblius is one of our more
00:19:12
photogenic parasites uh parasitologists
00:19:14
love to talk about giardia because
00:19:16
it looks like a little monkey face or it
00:19:18
has a personality it has a smile it has
00:19:20
a little flagella
00:19:21
people like to talk about it they don't
00:19:23
like to catch it so where do you catch
00:19:25
giardia
00:19:26
well you catch it from drinking
00:19:27
contaminated water by the breakdown
00:19:30
of public health practices which ensures
00:19:32
the safety of our drinking water
00:19:34
it's a constant struggle to maintain
00:19:37
filtered water supply for communities
00:19:39
that are
00:19:40
dependent upon those filtered water
00:19:41
supplies in reservoirs for instance
00:19:44
or natural bodies of water they have a
00:19:46
real problem ensuring the fact that the
00:19:48
giardia lamblia doesn't enter their
00:19:49
drinking water supply
00:19:51
and any time the filtration system fails
00:19:54
you can get outbreaks of giardia it's
00:19:56
well known that giardia cysts
00:19:58
can survive chlorination especially if
00:20:02
the chlorination
00:20:03
is not being done to adequate levels
00:20:06
so there have been large water-borne
00:20:10
outbreaks of giardiasis in the united
00:20:12
states
00:20:14
associated with either malfunctioning
00:20:17
or poorly designed municipal water
00:20:19
supplies
00:20:20
the diarrheal disease caused by giardia
00:20:23
is
00:20:24
somewhat different than the usual
00:20:27
diarrheal illness
00:20:28
because of where the parasite lives in
00:20:30
the human host
00:20:32
and the fact that in especially in heavy
00:20:34
infections
00:20:35
the parasite actually adheres to the
00:20:38
walls of the
00:20:39
small intestine but generally speaking
00:20:41
it can be treated with antibiotics
00:20:45
while gr diocese may cause us temporary
00:20:47
discomfort
00:20:49
waterborne disease in the tropics can
00:20:51
bring crushing illness
00:20:54
the guinea worm known formally as
00:20:57
dracunculus medinensis
00:20:59
is found throughout the tropical world
00:21:01
is transmitted through ingestion of
00:21:03
contaminant and water
00:21:06
there's a certain organism a crustacean
00:21:09
in that grows in fresh water that serves
00:21:12
as the intermediate host
00:21:14
for the disease and when humans ingest
00:21:17
water that has
00:21:18
an infected cyclops which is the name of
00:21:21
the intermediate host
00:21:23
they will acquire this disease it's a
00:21:25
worm that's about
00:21:27
twice the length of a yardstick in some
00:21:29
cases it lives in your subcutaneous
00:21:31
tissues and it seeks out the lowest part
00:21:33
of your body
00:21:34
and there the head of the worm elicits a
00:21:36
blister it's a visible blister you can
00:21:38
actually see the head of this worm under
00:21:39
the blister
00:21:40
when you step in the water the blister
00:21:43
bursts open
00:21:44
releasing larvae that the worm has
00:21:45
produced into the water column
00:21:47
and then you get to see this ugly
00:21:49
disfiguring blister on the end of your
00:21:50
foot
00:21:51
which you now have to do something about
00:21:53
and in most countries
00:21:54
what you do is you grab a small stick
00:21:57
and the head of the worm
00:21:58
wrap the head of the worm around this
00:21:59
stick and slowly every day
00:22:02
turn the stick slowly pulling the worm
00:22:05
out from your skin
00:22:07
if it should break you will experience
00:22:10
the worst anaphylactic reaction you can
00:22:13
possibly imagine
00:22:14
you'll get a sloughing of skin in the
00:22:16
region where the worm is
00:22:18
it will become secondarily infected with
00:22:20
bacteria and when it heals you'll have a
00:22:22
nasty scar for the rest of your life
00:22:26
another bloodthirsty parasite that
00:22:28
burrows through our skin
00:22:30
is the schistosome the schistosome
00:22:33
is endemic in parts of asia and africa
00:22:36
and utilizes a snail
00:22:38
as an intermediate host before infecting
00:22:40
humans
00:22:42
juvenile schistosomes called circaria
00:22:45
emerge from their snail host
00:22:47
into fresh water where they swim
00:22:49
frantically looking for the only host
00:22:51
where they can complete their
00:22:52
development
00:22:53
a human once the swimming circaria find
00:22:57
human skin
00:22:58
they eject their tail and utilize skin
00:23:01
dissolving enzymes to burrow through the
00:23:03
skin of the foot
00:23:05
and eventually into the bloodstream one
00:23:08
of its remarkable abilities
00:23:11
is its capacity to live in what should
00:23:14
be
00:23:14
the most inhospitable place on earth
00:23:18
an individual's bloodstream these worms
00:23:20
actually
00:23:21
live in blood vessels now think of it
00:23:24
if you were an infectious agent where is
00:23:26
the last place you would want to set up
00:23:28
shop
00:23:29
where you're being bombarded daily by
00:23:31
antibodies
00:23:33
being bombarded daily by white blood
00:23:35
cells
00:23:36
and yet here the schistosome not only
00:23:39
survives
00:23:40
but it thrives once the juveniles have
00:23:44
matured
00:23:44
the male and females pair up for life
00:23:47
where they mate
00:23:48
continuously producing and releasing
00:23:50
eggs
00:23:51
let's take the example of the bladder
00:23:54
schistosome
00:23:55
known as schistosoma hematobium with
00:23:57
this type of schistosomiasis
00:23:59
the egg has the ability to traverse
00:24:02
through the bladder wall
00:24:05
as the egg does this it elicits in a
00:24:07
host inflammatory response
00:24:09
that's also associated with bleeding as
00:24:12
a result people who harbor
00:24:14
bladder schistosomes develop blood in
00:24:16
their urine a condition known as
00:24:18
hematuria
00:24:20
a curious instance where
00:24:23
the presence of hematuria caused by
00:24:26
bladder schistosomes affected history
00:24:28
was when napoleon entered egypt
00:24:32
napoleon's troops it was prophesied
00:24:35
would be stricken by pharaoh's curse
00:24:39
should they choose to enter into egypt
00:24:41
and what was pharaoh's curse
00:24:43
it was male menstruation and sure enough
00:24:46
when many of his troops came into egypt
00:24:48
they acquired bladder schistosomiasis
00:24:51
and many of the troops believed that
00:24:53
this was the prophecy
00:24:55
of pharaoh's curse fulfilled another
00:24:58
fascinating parasitic disease
00:25:00
is one called oncocerciasis
00:25:03
the common name of which is river
00:25:04
blindness this is a
00:25:06
parasitic disease caused by a roundworm
00:25:09
parasite
00:25:10
of man that in its clinical
00:25:14
end stages causes a very devastating and
00:25:16
irreversible
00:25:18
blinding disease it's a parasite
00:25:21
that is transmitted from human to human
00:25:24
by the bite of a black fly
00:25:26
which is the vector the black fly breeds
00:25:30
in fast flowing streams
00:25:33
and therefore the disease is most
00:25:36
endemic
00:25:37
in the valleys of these streams and
00:25:40
thus the name river blindness after the
00:25:43
vector
00:25:44
bites the human it deposits the
00:25:47
larval worms which invade the skin
00:25:51
and eventually end up forming a nodule
00:25:55
under the skin where the adult worms
00:25:58
develop
00:25:59
while they're in this fibrous nodule
00:26:02
under the skin
00:26:04
the adult worms shed on the order of
00:26:06
three to five
00:26:07
thousand microfilarii or larval worms
00:26:10
per day
00:26:12
per adult these larval worms
00:26:15
instead of entering the bloodstream
00:26:18
remain
00:26:18
in the subcutaneous tissue and migrate
00:26:22
through the subcutaneous tissue
00:26:24
causing changes to the skin that can
00:26:27
manifest in such ways as
00:26:29
very hypoelastic skin
00:26:33
baggy skin as the disease progresses
00:26:36
and the number of larval worms in the
00:26:38
subcutaneous tissue increase
00:26:40
they eventually gain access to the
00:26:42
tissues of the eye
00:26:44
and cause microcalcifications which
00:26:48
over time build up and cause the
00:26:50
blindness
00:26:54
[Music]
00:27:00
this is where they slit my truth and had
00:27:03
some sort of plastic tube
00:27:08
the iv site went bad here and they cut
00:27:11
it out
00:27:12
and left me with this car and i also
00:27:15
have the scarf for my feeding tube
00:27:17
my body is scarred now
00:27:21
thirty-four-year-old haslam bostwick is
00:27:23
a native of south america
00:27:24
who lives in fort lauderdale florida
00:27:28
hasland knows a lot about one particular
00:27:30
parasite
00:27:31
plasmodium falciparum
00:27:34
it is the most deadly of all parasites
00:27:37
and more commonly known
00:27:39
as malaria
00:27:40
[Music]
00:27:42
i go into the interior of ghana very
00:27:44
often i used to
00:27:46
spend up to 10 days in there at the time
00:27:50
and in order to make sure that i don't
00:27:53
come in to cut it doesn't anything
00:27:55
nothing
00:27:55
bites me was i would make sure that my
00:27:58
tent was sprayed before i go to bed at
00:28:00
night
00:28:01
while i'm outdoor i make sure that my
00:28:03
body is totally covered so nothing could
00:28:05
bite me
00:28:08
in the spring of 1999 haslam had her
00:28:11
blood checked for malaria
00:28:13
when she returned from a trip to oversee
00:28:15
a gold mine she owns in guyana
00:28:18
she wasn't feeling well but her tests
00:28:20
proved negative
00:28:22
so hasland took her son on a school trip
00:28:24
to washington dc
00:28:27
she became weaker more nauseous three
00:28:29
days into the trip
00:28:31
haslam took to her bed
00:28:36
so i lied down and then i got up later
00:28:38
on went to the bathroom and
00:28:39
went back to bed and when i went back to
00:28:42
bed i never got back up again
00:28:44
haslam bostwick slipped into a coma she
00:28:48
was taken over by the malaria parasites
00:28:51
hasland joined the ranks of 250 million
00:28:54
victims around the globe
00:28:56
who contract malaria each year
00:28:59
three million of those people die and
00:29:02
it's the young who suffer the most
00:29:05
every 30 seconds of every hour of every
00:29:08
day
00:29:09
the malaria parasite kills a child
00:29:13
the research done over even the last 50
00:29:15
years
00:29:16
have not been able to reduce the
00:29:18
mortality
00:29:20
the in-hospital fatality rate
00:29:23
of severe malaria in children in the
00:29:25
tropics in primary care hospitals in the
00:29:28
tropics
00:29:29
one percent nothing that we've done
00:29:33
has been able to reduce the mortality of
00:29:35
severe malaria
00:29:37
malaria had been a mystery for centuries
00:29:40
no one knew exactly where it came from
00:29:43
nor how it was passed from victim to
00:29:45
victim
00:29:46
the evil illness seemed simply to emerge
00:29:49
from the stale air around swamps
00:29:52
in fact the literal translation of
00:29:54
malaria is
00:29:55
bad air in 1880
00:29:59
a protozoan parasite was found living in
00:30:02
the blood of malaria patients
00:30:06
the female anopheles mosquito was soon
00:30:09
identified as the vector
00:30:11
for the malaria parasite
00:30:19
sixty years later malaria was still the
00:30:22
leading cause of sickness and death in
00:30:24
humans on earth
00:30:27
the medicine quinine made from the bark
00:30:29
of the cincona tree
00:30:31
had been used to ease symptoms for 400
00:30:33
years
00:30:34
but it took until the 1950s to find hope
00:30:37
in a weapon that would wipe out
00:30:39
malaria's carrier
00:30:42
chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide ddt
00:30:47
there was nothing quite like it before
00:30:49
and there has been nothing like it since
00:30:51
here was a chemical that could be
00:30:53
sprayed on the walls of a house
00:30:55
and for up to six months any insect that
00:30:57
rested on that surface
00:30:58
would die it was then thought to be
00:31:01
non-toxic to humans
00:31:03
and it was inexpensive to manufacture
00:31:06
the female anopheles mosquito was public
00:31:08
enemy number one
00:31:10
and world health officials had a brand
00:31:12
new weapon
00:31:14
eradication efforts were effective in
00:31:16
north america and europe
00:31:18
but after a decade of trying to
00:31:19
annihilate the mosquito in africa
00:31:21
india and asia the success of ddt slowed
00:31:26
war corruption inaction famine
00:31:29
and a host of other problems detracted
00:31:31
from the battle
00:31:32
against malaria by the late 1970s
00:31:36
the world health organization bitterly
00:31:38
admitted that malaria was back
00:31:40
and worse than ever today only the hiv
00:31:45
virus comes close to the destruction
00:31:47
malaria brings upon this earth
00:31:52
it's estimated by some economists that
00:31:55
malaria alone reduces the gross domestic
00:31:57
product of the countries in sub-saharan
00:31:59
africa by about one percent
00:32:03
perhaps even more that translates into
00:32:06
billions of dollars of loss
00:32:09
in those countries every year
00:32:13
so it has an enormous impact in every
00:32:16
military campaign
00:32:17
in which u.s forces have been involved
00:32:19
in the last hundred years
00:32:21
where malaria was transmitted we've
00:32:24
always had more casualties to malaria
00:32:26
than we've had from hostile fire
00:32:28
that means from a military perspective
00:32:31
that malaria has tremendous
00:32:33
mission aborting potential
00:32:36
the swamps around haslam bostwick's
00:32:39
south american gold mine
00:32:40
were a perfect breeding ground for the
00:32:42
anopheles mosquito
00:32:45
as the mosquito fed on hasland's blood
00:32:47
in its nightly ritual
00:32:49
it released thousands of thread-like
00:32:51
malaria parasites
00:32:52
that were stored in its salivary glands
00:32:56
for 12 days haslan would go without
00:32:59
symptoms while parasites invaded her
00:33:01
liver
00:33:02
and transformed into organisms that
00:33:04
moved on to her red blood cells
00:33:06
the tiny creatures divided and
00:33:08
multiplied by the millions
00:33:10
they became so numerous that her red
00:33:12
blood cells exploded
00:33:14
by the time haslin fell into a coma
00:33:17
parasites were shutting down
00:33:18
most of her vital organs including her
00:33:21
brain
00:33:22
the only organ that was functioning was
00:33:24
my heart
00:33:25
everything else had already shut down by
00:33:28
the time i got to the hospital
00:33:30
and they had to
00:33:33
pretty much they had to put catheters
00:33:36
and whatever else they had to put in me
00:33:40
dr stephen hoffman was rushed in to work
00:33:43
with haslan
00:33:44
so what was going on was these parasites
00:33:47
were binding to these small blood
00:33:48
vessels
00:33:49
in her brain and blocking up blood flow
00:33:54
if there's no blood flow then no oxygen
00:33:56
gets to your brain
00:33:57
and you slip into a coma after centuries
00:34:01
of suffering
00:34:02
and death decades after the discovery
00:34:04
that malaria is a parasite
00:34:06
and research into a cure there is still
00:34:09
no effective modern drug to combat
00:34:12
malaria in its late stages
00:34:14
and there is no practical vaccine
00:34:16
against malaria
00:34:18
we are in a situation where the two
00:34:20
major drugs
00:34:21
in this world used for treating severe
00:34:24
malaria cerebral malaria severe malarial
00:34:26
anemia
00:34:28
hyper paracetamia high levels of
00:34:30
parasites in the bloodstream
00:34:32
are quinine and artemisinin derivatives
00:34:36
both of those have been available for
00:34:38
hundreds if not thousands of years
00:34:41
it's not that we haven't developed new
00:34:43
drugs for treating the parasite
00:34:45
but that the parasite has either
00:34:47
developed resistance to those drugs or
00:34:49
they're actually not as good
00:34:51
as these age-old remedies
00:34:55
through the developed world's best
00:34:57
medical efforts hasland did stabilize
00:35:00
and miraculously she survived after five
00:35:03
weeks of devastating illness
00:35:05
haslam responded to treatment and has
00:35:08
been malaria free
00:35:09
ever since
00:35:13
this this particular parasite kills
00:35:16
and not too many people can survive to
00:35:19
tell a story
00:35:21
because especially getting to the point
00:35:23
where i was
00:35:25
because i should have been dead
00:35:29
i should not be here sitting with
00:35:31
talking to you today i should really be
00:35:32
dead
00:35:35
efforts to eradicate and treat the
00:35:37
terrifying destruction of parasites
00:35:40
all over the world meet with varied and
00:35:42
intermittent success
00:35:45
in the case of vector-borne parasites
00:35:48
african governments have attempted to
00:35:49
eliminate the vectors
00:35:51
the flies and mosquitoes and other
00:35:53
insects that carry parasites for river
00:35:55
blindness
00:35:56
elephantiasis and malaria
00:36:02
these efforts have slowed the spread of
00:36:04
some infections
00:36:05
but many scientists argue that
00:36:07
eradication of parasites
00:36:09
may not be possible we've actually never
00:36:11
been able to control
00:36:13
to the point of extinction any parasitic
00:36:15
infection
00:36:16
the only disease producing agent we've
00:36:20
ever been able to get rid of is smallpox
00:36:22
and that's because smallpox only
00:36:24
infected the human and no other
00:36:26
host some of these parasites can infect
00:36:28
multiple
00:36:29
hosts you can have reservoirs out there
00:36:31
so even if you could affect cures in
00:36:33
people
00:36:34
you still couldn't get rid of it in the
00:36:35
animal populations it might also harbor
00:36:37
the same stages
00:36:39
so even if you could control everything
00:36:40
in the human population you could still
00:36:42
reintroduce it every now and then
00:36:44
because of these animal reservoirs
00:36:48
if eradication isn't an option then
00:36:50
controlling the spread of infection is
00:36:52
the answer to limiting parasitic
00:36:54
outbreaks
00:36:56
one control success story is the
00:36:58
onco-circiasis control program
00:37:02
when oncochiasis was at its height
00:37:06
in the late 60s and early 70s
00:37:10
it became evident that this disease was
00:37:12
a major
00:37:13
impediment to successful development
00:37:16
particularly of these countries in west
00:37:18
africa where it was so highly endemic
00:37:21
because of that
00:37:22
the world bank the who
00:37:26
and other international organizations
00:37:28
banded together
00:37:29
to form the encore crisis control
00:37:31
program
00:37:32
which has in its 25 years of existence
00:37:35
had a
00:37:36
major impact on blocking the
00:37:39
transmission of the disease
00:37:41
protecting the vision of over 600 000
00:37:44
africans
00:37:45
in west africa and allowing somewhere in
00:37:49
the order of 15 million
00:37:50
children in this area to be able to grow
00:37:53
up
00:37:54
without the threat of blinding onco
00:37:56
psychiatrists
00:37:59
the guinea worms story is one of our
00:38:02
shining lights in terms of parasite
00:38:04
controls
00:38:06
it's found throughout the tropics
00:38:07
throughout africa throughout the middle
00:38:09
east throughout
00:38:10
india and even in south america as well
00:38:13
it's intermediate host that is it lives
00:38:15
in other things besides humans it lives
00:38:17
in this little water
00:38:18
flea and by filtering out the water flea
00:38:21
you can get rid of the guinea one and we
00:38:23
taught people how to do that
00:38:25
they went and did it and we've
00:38:27
controlled this infection now in all but
00:38:28
13 countries throughout the world
00:38:30
used to be in hundreds of countries
00:38:34
in the developed world new water
00:38:36
treatment practices have been developed
00:38:38
to keep
00:38:38
out cryptosporidium parasites
00:38:41
milwaukee spent 80 million dollars
00:38:43
building a new water plant
00:38:46
but the tragedy in milwaukee brought
00:38:47
attention to the daily efforts being
00:38:49
made
00:38:50
on the part of water treatment officials
00:38:52
to ensure that our drinking water
00:38:54
remains safe the lessons that we learned
00:38:57
in milwaukee is
00:38:59
you need to be prepared you need to know
00:39:01
the capabilities and the vulnerabilities
00:39:03
of your water treatment system
00:39:05
one can never say this will happen again
00:39:07
but one can never say it won't
00:39:09
and so until there's assurance
00:39:12
between the health department the water
00:39:14
officials and others that you're as
00:39:16
prepared as you can be
00:39:18
you're at risk david leiby of the
00:39:22
american red cross
00:39:23
believes the milwaukee outbreak was a
00:39:25
wake-up call
00:39:26
the sheer size of the incident suggests
00:39:29
that
00:39:31
there's a potential for this type of
00:39:32
thing to occur in the future
00:39:34
i mean even though our water supply like
00:39:35
our blood supply is very safe as well
00:39:37
and great measures are taken to
00:39:39
prevent these kind of instances or these
00:39:42
kind of occurrences from happening
00:39:44
however it just points out the fact that
00:39:46
parasites can in fact be very
00:39:48
opportunistic
00:39:50
and then if there is a possibility of
00:39:53
them getting into a system in this case
00:39:55
a water system
00:39:56
which they are allowed an opportunity to
00:39:59
grow and develop
00:40:00
and to replicate then they certainly can
00:40:02
take advantage of it
00:40:05
some see a future in biological controls
00:40:08
putting parasites at war with each other
00:40:12
introduce a benign echinostome flute to
00:40:15
the host of a parasite like the
00:40:17
schistosome fluke
00:40:18
in hopes that the benign flute will
00:40:21
attack and kill
00:40:22
its harmful cousin
00:40:25
the snail is infected with this evil
00:40:28
schistosome
00:40:29
and along comes this nice a kind of
00:40:32
stone that has a mouth
00:40:34
and a gut and it seeks out the
00:40:37
schistosome in the snail
00:40:39
and wammo it it sucks it up it swallows
00:40:42
it
00:40:43
and the schistosome uh larval stage is
00:40:46
gone
00:40:46
uh and this is a marvelous biological
00:40:50
adaptation
00:40:51
whereby this tug of war is going on in
00:40:54
the snail and the
00:40:56
schistosome this evil schistosome is
00:40:59
destroyed by this nice
00:41:00
kind of stone the idea of biological
00:41:04
control in some respects
00:41:05
is very attractive as opposed to
00:41:08
something like ddt which is very harmful
00:41:11
to the environment if you could have a
00:41:13
biological control
00:41:15
for instance another animal eating the
00:41:17
intermediate host or one of the the
00:41:19
vectors of a parasite
00:41:21
you know that's a great idea because
00:41:23
that doesn't involve something that
00:41:24
generally harms the environment or
00:41:26
disrupts the ecology at least in most
00:41:28
cases
00:41:30
another avenue of protection is the
00:41:32
development of a vaccine against
00:41:34
parasitic infections
00:41:38
dr stephen hoffman and his team at the
00:41:40
navy medical research center in bethesda
00:41:42
maryland
00:41:43
are developing groundbreaking vaccines
00:41:45
for malaria
00:41:47
the team begins with thousands of
00:41:49
anopheles mosquitoes
00:41:51
from the research centers in sectary
00:41:54
volunteers are bitten by
00:41:55
malaria-infected mosquitoes
00:41:57
that have been exposed to radiation the
00:42:00
radiation weakens the malaria parasites
00:42:03
harbored within the infected mosquitoes
00:42:06
the weakened parasites evoke responses
00:42:08
from the volunteers autoimmune system
00:42:12
after thousands of these responses the
00:42:14
volunteers develop immunity to malaria
00:42:19
while progress towards a workable
00:42:21
vaccine is made every day
00:42:24
the complex nature of parasites creates
00:42:27
a moving target for medical science
00:42:30
they have multiple antigens or proteins
00:42:34
that are expressed
00:42:35
on their surface at different courses in
00:42:37
their life cycle
00:42:39
that makes the design of a vaccine
00:42:41
almost impossible
00:42:46
the more we learn about these parasites
00:42:48
the more respect we gain for
00:42:50
their side of the life cycle and the
00:42:52
more respect we gain
00:42:54
for the immense amount of selection
00:42:57
those parasites have caused our biology
00:42:59
to undergo
00:43:04
the ability of these organisms to infect
00:43:06
new hosts and infect virtually every
00:43:08
animal that we know
00:43:09
there's just so many different varieties
00:43:12
of parasites and so many complex things
00:43:14
that you
00:43:15
you can learn as well simple things
00:43:20
there's nothing easy about studying
00:43:22
parasitic organisms
00:43:24
they tend to be very difficult to
00:43:26
maintain in the laboratory
00:43:28
it tends to be very difficult to get
00:43:29
large numbers of organisms to study
00:43:32
as a result doing biochemistry on these
00:43:35
organisms is difficult doing genetics on
00:43:37
these organisms are difficult
00:43:45
parasitologists scientists who study
00:43:47
parasites
00:43:48
tend to be of a very special breed
00:43:51
there's something else that motivates
00:43:53
parasitologists to study these organisms
00:43:56
that would not ordinarily motivate
00:43:58
a person studying another class of
00:44:00
organisms the wonder of it all and the
00:44:02
the complexity of what we see in these
00:44:05
organisms
00:44:06
going from single cell organisms to very
00:44:08
complex organisms from
00:44:11
parasites that you have to look at under
00:44:13
a microscope to
00:44:14
tapeworms found in whales that are 100
00:44:16
feet long
00:44:19
the ultimate goal of studying parasites
00:44:22
and to learn about their biologies
00:44:24
is to ultimately exercise some control
00:44:28
over the way they spread
00:44:32
my cousin rabbi felizowski told me about
00:44:36
a hebrew concept
00:44:37
which he calls tikkun olam and it means
00:44:41
to better the world it kind of refers to
00:44:44
the fact that
00:44:47
an individual's obligation in life is
00:44:50
to try to want to better the world and i
00:44:52
think that's the one unifying feature
00:44:54
i've always seen
00:44:55
among my colleagues in parasitology is
00:44:58
no matter what particular parasite
00:45:00
they're studying
00:45:01
there is some humanitarian motivation in
00:45:04
wanting to study these classic organisms
00:45:21
[Music]
00:45:38
you