[Leica] Last on parasites - promise!

[Edward Caliguri <caliguri@rcn.com>]

 Yes- Onchocirca I believe (or something like that) Some think that is how
the "medical symbol" for Physicians and Vets got to have a snake (or at
first, a worm -like creature) wound tightly around a staff, or pole.
Very gruesome - but the live cycle of parasites is a very interesting
treatise on survival in it's most complicated form. One 'neat one' is the
Lancet fluke - check that baby out on your own. Ya gotta give them that. BUT
it's key to unravel all these complicated steps in order to find cures, both
preventative and prophylactic.
    Just as a segway back ON Topic, I used a Leica R and 100 Apo Macro to
shoot an exhibit here in a Boston museum of 'Parasites of The Rich and
Famous' to send to my brother on the left coast. Turns out in the late
1700's it was popular to swallow tapeworm eggs in order to loose weight! But
it was only affordable by the rich, who would then take 'expensive' quinine
to rid themselves after it had done the dirty work - IF they got to it in
time. I suppose diet and exercise wasn't popular then :-)
    Ed

> In Africa, surely the best (and Kyle Cassidy's favourite parasite!) thing to
> avoid is the guinea worm, Dracunculis medinensis, which you get by drinking
> water contaminated by infected cyclopoid copepods (a tiny crustacean).  The
> guinea worm grows to a meter or more in length and lives under the skin on
> your leg.  The head end pokes out a hole the worm makes in your leg and lays
> eggs into water when your foot is submerged.  The traditional fix is to slowly
> wind the worm out on a stick.  Lovely.

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