by Jason Evans
ACTUALLY ITS NONE OF THE ABOVE!
THIS MONSTER OR CURSE IS REAL!
PARAGONIMUS
WESTERMANI
A.K.A. LUNG FLUKE
If you want some of these guys ( I use that term loosely…more on that later) in your lungs and causing all kinds of problems…. all you have to do is to eat a dish that contains improperly cooked fresh water crabs, crayfish or even wild boar. Being that I am from Georgia, I feel that I may need to clarify to my southern readers exactly what kind of food I am talking about. By freshwater crabs, I mean the eatin kind and by crayfish I mean crawfish, crawdads, mud puppies or swamp lobster. Ya’ll know what a wild boar hog is.
One good thing about the lung fluke is that you don’t find a lot of them here in the United States. I’m not saying we don’t have them here because we do! As a matter of fact, they actually live from southern Canada to Peru. The U.S. is between those two places. These things primarily like to hang out in our neighbor to the south…South America (That’s where Peru is) as well as Asia.
Now that I hopefully have your attention, I’m going to let you know about this worm. Here is your first biology word…..TREMATODE….which is a kind of parasitic flatworm. There are a bunch of different types of trematodes. The trematode type that we will be talking about are a group called Paragonimus (Second biology word) and you guessed it… there are a bunch of different kinds of Paragonimus also. Its kinda like introducing yourself to someone by saying “ Hey, my name is Bobby Johnson” then they ask you if you are Tommy, Billy or Johns’ boy? They are all related but a little different. There are about 30 different types of Paragonimus that infect animals. There are about 10 types that infect humans. The animal in the picture above is the one that infects most humans. Its called Paragonimus westermani. We will call it Pw for short from now on. Let me tell you a little bit about this thing…..You are gonna really wanna pay attention here…..this is some cool stuff.
The adult worms are about 12 mm long, 6 mm wide. In English, that’s about ¾ of an inch long and ½ of an inch wide. They are about the same size and shape of a coffee bean, not the ground up kind but the fancy kind you see at Wal-mart next to the Maxwell House. Here is a real cool part….They are hermaphrodites (Biology word number 3). For those of you who don’t know that word…it means one worm has both “Boy and girl parts!”
Well, here is what happened. A long time ago somebody, somewhere thought it would be a good idea to eat a raw freshwater crab. I know what you are thinking, why would anyone look at a crab he just grabbed out of a river and think it would be a good idea to eat this thing right now! Maybe it was before fire was discovered or something. I guess its kind like us southerners saying….” Hold my beer and watch this!” Anyway, that Pw got into the human and started having sex with itself to produce eggs. Remember, it can do that its got both parts! The eggs were laid in the lungs. After the eggs were laid in the lungs, the human coughed a lot and blew some of the eggs out into the water or he could have pooped some out into his water supply. Generally speaking, a man would not poop in the same water that he drinks but remember we are talking about a guy who decided to eat a raw crab! After about 2 weeks in the water, the eggs hatch into what is called a miracidia (Procounced…..Mirra ..like the thing you look in…Sid …like your uncle…..and Dia…..like a fancy talking man would say Deer) ( Biology word number 4) . The miracidia start swimming around looking for a snail. Once they find a snail, they crawl into it and grow into a “toddler”. When they reach the toddler age they are too big for the snail and are ready to move on to something bigger. So, the toddlers crawl out of the snail, start swimming around in the water and start looking for a crab or a crayfish. When they find the crab or crayfish they crawl into it, hang out and wait for a human to catch it and eat it raw so the whole process can start over again. Now about the hogs (Not the motorcycle)…well hogs eat just about anything they can catch or dig up. So, if you have a hog that gets hold of crab or crayfish and he’s gonna eat it. Then if you happen to kill the hog that ate the crab or crayfish and you eat that hog…then you get the worm also.
Lung flukes can live inside a human host for as long as 20 years.
One good thing about the lung fluke is that you don’t find a lot of them here in the United States. I’m not saying we don’t have them here because we do! As a matter of fact, they actually live from southern Canada to Peru. The U.S. is between those two places. These things primarily like to hang out in our neighbor to the south…South America (That’s where Peru is) as well as Asia.
Now that I hopefully have your attention, I’m going to let you know about this worm. Here is your first biology word…..TREMATODE….which is a kind of parasitic flatworm. There are a bunch of different types of trematodes. The trematode type that we will be talking about are a group called Paragonimus (Second biology word) and you guessed it… there are a bunch of different kinds of Paragonimus also. Its kinda like introducing yourself to someone by saying “ Hey, my name is Bobby Johnson” then they ask you if you are Tommy, Billy or Johns’ boy? They are all related but a little different. There are about 30 different types of Paragonimus that infect animals. There are about 10 types that infect humans. The animal in the picture above is the one that infects most humans. Its called Paragonimus westermani. We will call it Pw for short from now on. Let me tell you a little bit about this thing…..You are gonna really wanna pay attention here…..this is some cool stuff.
The adult worms are about 12 mm long, 6 mm wide. In English, that’s about ¾ of an inch long and ½ of an inch wide. They are about the same size and shape of a coffee bean, not the ground up kind but the fancy kind you see at Wal-mart next to the Maxwell House. Here is a real cool part….They are hermaphrodites (Biology word number 3). For those of you who don’t know that word…it means one worm has both “Boy and girl parts!”
Well, here is what happened. A long time ago somebody, somewhere thought it would be a good idea to eat a raw freshwater crab. I know what you are thinking, why would anyone look at a crab he just grabbed out of a river and think it would be a good idea to eat this thing right now! Maybe it was before fire was discovered or something. I guess its kind like us southerners saying….” Hold my beer and watch this!” Anyway, that Pw got into the human and started having sex with itself to produce eggs. Remember, it can do that its got both parts! The eggs were laid in the lungs. After the eggs were laid in the lungs, the human coughed a lot and blew some of the eggs out into the water or he could have pooped some out into his water supply. Generally speaking, a man would not poop in the same water that he drinks but remember we are talking about a guy who decided to eat a raw crab! After about 2 weeks in the water, the eggs hatch into what is called a miracidia (Procounced…..Mirra ..like the thing you look in…Sid …like your uncle…..and Dia…..like a fancy talking man would say Deer) ( Biology word number 4) . The miracidia start swimming around looking for a snail. Once they find a snail, they crawl into it and grow into a “toddler”. When they reach the toddler age they are too big for the snail and are ready to move on to something bigger. So, the toddlers crawl out of the snail, start swimming around in the water and start looking for a crab or a crayfish. When they find the crab or crayfish they crawl into it, hang out and wait for a human to catch it and eat it raw so the whole process can start over again. Now about the hogs (Not the motorcycle)…well hogs eat just about anything they can catch or dig up. So, if you have a hog that gets hold of crab or crayfish and he’s gonna eat it. Then if you happen to kill the hog that ate the crab or crayfish and you eat that hog…then you get the worm also.
Lung flukes can live inside a human host for as long as 20 years.
So, I guess you are asking:
How long does this take?
It takes about 65 to 90 days from the time you are infected until the effects of the fluke can be detected.
How do I know if I have it?
You could have a persistent cough (One that lasts a long time), Bronchitis, or you could cough up blood.
It takes about 65 to 90 days from the time you are infected until the effects of the fluke can be detected.
How do I know if I have it?
You could have a persistent cough (One that lasts a long time), Bronchitis, or you could cough up blood.
How does a doctor know that I have it?
The doctor will have to use a microscope to look at some stuff that you cough up from lungs or he can also use a microscope to look at your stool ( Not the kind you step on in the kitchen to reach the top shelf). He will be looking for the eggs.
Is there a medicine that can kill the Lung Flukes?
Is there a medicine that can kill the Lung Flukes?
YEP!…Its called Praziquantel .This medicine kills the worms.
Your last question is probably…
How can I prevent myself from getting this thing in me?
Well, that’s pretty easy…..Don’t eat raw freshwater crabs or crayfish!…..better yet…don’t eat any raw meat.
References:
CDC
Web Atlas of Medical Parasitology
U.S. National Library of Medicine
Well, that’s pretty easy…..Don’t eat raw freshwater crabs or crayfish!…..better yet…don’t eat any raw meat.
References:
CDC
Web Atlas of Medical Parasitology
U.S. National Library of Medicine
NCBI Clinical Microbial Review, 2009 July, 27 (3) 466-483
Photo credit:
Photo credit:
www.Animal.Discovery.com - Monsters Inside Me: Lung Fluke
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