Peter wrote:
> Imagine being covered with ticks, lice in your lungs, and your guts filled with amoebas. 

Ramona wrote:
> Actually, this is pretty much reality and is explained in a very entertaining fashion

I find little to be entertained by the subject of disease and parasites. I work in a veterinary hospital, and can see acute suffering whenever I need that sort of entertainment. The whole notion of beneficial symbionts has been way over sold by the popular press. 

This fall folks like Mike Palmer and myself have been plagued by ticks. I know several people who have been incapacitated by Lyme disease. Many younger people have no idea of the scourge of tuberculosis, which has been virtually wiped out by modern antibiotics (my sister and I had this as kids; I also had polio, an entertaining little virus). 

Insofar as gut parasites goes, we in the modern world have no idea how much people suffer elsewhere. The side effect of living in an affluent society is to forget that the majority of the world's people and other organisms are riddled with parasites which are not beneficial and create untold misery. 

> Diarrhea is most commonly due to viral gastroenteritis with rotavirus, which accounts for 40% of cases in children under five. In travelers however bacterial infections predominate. In 2009 diarrhea was estimated to have caused 1.1 million deaths in people aged 5 and over and 1.5 million deaths in children under the age of 5.

> Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or tubercle bacillus, is the causative agent of tuberculosis. This disease typically begins in the lungs and may spread to other organs, including the kidneys and brain. CDC notes that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can live in the body without causing disease; this is known as latent tuberculosis.

> Ticks are vectors of a number of diseases, including Lyme disease, Q fever, Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,tularemia, tick-borne relapsing fever, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Tick paralysis and tick-borne meningoencephalitis, as well as bovineanaplasmosis.

PLB

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