• Question: What is the worst a flesh-eating parasite can do to you

    Asked by jf4567 to Tim, Enda, Jean on 17 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by natasha3, avab.
    • Photo: Tim Downing

      Tim Downing answered on 17 Nov 2012:

      Hi JF4567,

      They can kill you. This is probably the worst thing possible! It does this by gaining access to immune cells, and then growing and increasing in number inside them. Then the immune cells reaches a point where it cannot take any more parasites inside it, and the cells explodes, releasing lots of parasites. These then infect other cells. Eventually, this will make the patient very sick and may kill them.

      Read my other answers to you, drug therapies can prevent this 🙂

      Tim

    • Photo: Jean Bourke

      Jean Bourke answered on 23 Nov 2012:

      I agree with Tim: kill you. They can do lots of horrible things ranging from paralysis to brain damage to maiming to just a scar. It’s important to treat such an infection quickly and effectively to prevent it spreading.

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