The Most Childish Parasite
So, we've had the most romantic parasite, the most adorable parasite, and the best shape for a parasite egg. Today, I give you the most childish parasite
Plasmodium falciparum
This is the parasite that causes malaria. So, it will be a free roller-coaster ride of repetitive fever, chills, and in extreme cases, coma, liver failure and death. The strange thing about a lot of parasites is that they simply reduce quality of living, but aren't big killers. Plasmodium falciparum (and it's cousin plasmodia species vivax, ovale and malariae), do kill. But, falciparum has this funky, childish thing that it does. For those who are not familiar with the pathology of malaria, it invades the red blood cells. Literally. And when I say literally, I'm using it in its actual semantic usage and not in the popular usage of "I literally ate as much as a horse today," when they actually FIGURATIVELY ate as much as a horse that day. But falciparum literally invades the cells and then lives inside of them. Now, the only way to kill the malaria is to kill the RBC that it lives in. Luckily, we already routinely kill red blood cells when they're too old. This is done in the spleen. But P. falciparum is tricky. It causes sticky knobs to appear on the edges of the RBC that it invades, so that the RBC sticks to the sides of the veins and doesn't go to the spleen.
I call this the childish parasite because, in my mind, it's like a little child hanging onto the doorframe when it doesn't want to do something. "No! No! I'm not going to the spleen! I'm not going to the spleen! I'm not going! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!"
Childish, Plasmodium falciparum. Very childish.
Plasmodium falciparum
This is the parasite that causes malaria. So, it will be a free roller-coaster ride of repetitive fever, chills, and in extreme cases, coma, liver failure and death. The strange thing about a lot of parasites is that they simply reduce quality of living, but aren't big killers. Plasmodium falciparum (and it's cousin plasmodia species vivax, ovale and malariae), do kill. But, falciparum has this funky, childish thing that it does. For those who are not familiar with the pathology of malaria, it invades the red blood cells. Literally. And when I say literally, I'm using it in its actual semantic usage and not in the popular usage of "I literally ate as much as a horse today," when they actually FIGURATIVELY ate as much as a horse that day. But falciparum literally invades the cells and then lives inside of them. Now, the only way to kill the malaria is to kill the RBC that it lives in. Luckily, we already routinely kill red blood cells when they're too old. This is done in the spleen. But P. falciparum is tricky. It causes sticky knobs to appear on the edges of the RBC that it invades, so that the RBC sticks to the sides of the veins and doesn't go to the spleen.
I call this the childish parasite because, in my mind, it's like a little child hanging onto the doorframe when it doesn't want to do something. "No! No! I'm not going to the spleen! I'm not going to the spleen! I'm not going! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!"
Childish, Plasmodium falciparum. Very childish.
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