[Applause] parasites are organisms that Survive by mooching off a living host body like yours from single celled protozoa that exist harmoniously within us to fleas that suck our blood to tapeworms that set up shop in our intestinal tracts humans play host to millions of common parasites every year but some are incredibly rare the sparganum worm ah yes it's hungry for human flesh can grow to be almost a foot long and may live for 20 years in your body Charming sparganum though common in animals the recorded infection rate in humans is something like one to two dozen cases per year worldwide maybe because it doesn't always cause symptoms in its host depending on where in your body it settles but if it invades your brain inner ear spinal cord or eyes it can cause symptoms from headache and vertigo to blindness and paralysis the moral of the story avoid undercooked meat and untreated water and definitely don't use raw frog meat imp pules on your wounds or eyes the netha spinigerum worm these Critters actually aren't able to reproduce inside a human body the way they do inside other hosts like freshwater fish and tasty Crustaceans well that's good news for you it's bad for the parasite once you're infected they live out their lonely 10 to 12 year life cycle my migrating throughout your body causing swelling under your skin this condition nethost amasis has begun emerging outside of its common habitat in the Tropics of Asia cooking your protein of choice to an internal temperature of at least 145° F that's about 63° cius will help keep you safe the neria fower amoeba this single celled heat loving parasite is found in warm freshwater lakes ponds rivers and Hot Springs it infects humans by entering through your nose then crawls straight into your brain through your olfactory nerves causing a swelling infection called primary Amic meno entis at first this seems like bacterial menitis you headaches nausea and a stiff neck but it quickly morphs into something much more serious think seizures and hallucinations it can kill you in less than a week the good news of the hundreds of millions of potential exposures every year in the US only 0 to eight cases are reported and it's more common here than anywhere else in the [Music] world the candiru catfish wait catfish what the stuff yes this tiny Amazon River fish a relative of the catfish beloved as a food source in the US is a parasite they're usually less than 3 in or 8 cm in length and they vom to suck your blood well they want to suck fish blood really so they've adapted a keen nose for nitrogen which fish excrete through their gills the candiru senses that nitrogen gets in through the gills and feeds off of the fish but humans also excrete nitrogen in our urine and since candiru don't know the difference between a Gill and a urethra well just remember to use the bathroom before you go swimming in the Amazon River and that's all the time we have today to talk about parasites and stuff but if you'd like to learn more check out our article 10 rare parasites on how stuff works.com and hey if you like to video let us know in the comments and hit subscribe so that you won't miss the next [Music] one Charming Spar Spar this one is pronunciation n nathus by nidum We Can't Stop We Can't [Music] Stop