Parasitic Worms....


Ascaris lumbricoides, the large roundworm of humans. In the foreground is a pile of Ascaris worms collected from people living in a small village in the south of India. The worms will mainly have come from children.

Tococara canis. This is a scanning electron microscope picture of the microscopic juvenile forms of the dog parasite Toxocara canis, which is common in the UK. The eggs of the parasite are shed in the faeces of dogs (puppies in particular) and contaminate parks and gardens, where the infective larvae develop. Humans who injest the eggs by the ingestion of soil (usually children) become infected and the juvenile worms migrate through the soft tissues of the body, including the brain and the eyes, for up to ten years.


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