AND impossible set a champion. A parasite is any creature that needs to associate with another for surviveincluding viruses, bacteria and insects.
Dangerousness depends on a number of factors: region the infestation rolls (some are endemic, that is, they persist for years in populations in more isolated places), if the disease is easily detectable and if it already exists treatment for the problem, among others.
For example: in Middle Agesthe black plague killed 75 million of people. The virus has not changed, but today, medicine would already be able to prevent mass deaths if there was a new wave of infections.
DAMN GUESTS
Meet the human invaders with the highest death rates
SEVEN DAYS AND IT WAS
SPECIES – Naegleria fowleri
MORTALITY – 98%
This amoeba lives in still waters in Asian countries with temperatures above 40°C, such as China. All you have to do is ingest a little bit of contaminated water and goodbye: it devours the victim’s brain, killing in less than a week.
CRAZY
SPECIES – Baleamuthia mandrillaris
MORTALITY – 95%
This aquatic amoeba invades the organism when ingested or when coming into contact with open wounds. Once in the bloodstream, it causes amoebic granulomatous encephalitis, a disease that renders the victim’s brain useless in a matter of days. It is common in sub-Saharan Africa.
BRAIN PUPPY
SPECIES – Taenia solium
MORTALITY – 25% (in neurocysticercosis)
A well-known figure from school books, this worm causes cysticercosis, transmitted by ingesting its eggs. The worst variation is neurocysticercosis, when they reach the brain. The worm babies go on to feed on the gray matter.
SLOW AND DANGEROUS
SPECIES – Leishmania sp
MORTALITY – 10%
This protozoan infects humans with the bite of the sand fly, which transmits leishmaniasis. The disease can take up to ten years to generate any symptoms. If it manifests itself in the visceral form, it can swell the internal organs until it kills the host. Without treatment, death is certain.
MILLIONS OF VICTIMS
SPECIES – Plasmodium falciparum
MORTALITY – 20%
The protozoan that causes malaria has several subspecies. One of the worst is this one, which causes delusions to irreversible mental problems – which, many times, cause death. It is the most common parasitic disease in the world: in 2010 alone, 219 million people were infected.
SOURCES: Parasites and Pestilence, study group from Stanford University (USA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from the US government, Initiative for Vaccine Research, from the World Health Organization, and Cysticercosis-Related Mortality Trends, from AH Santo.