Bodysnatchers

Victims tell their stories. Tanya came back from holiday in Costa Rica with a botfly maggot in her head. Zoe acquired her stubborn tapeworm on holiday in Africa, though it was two years before she noticed that anything was wrong. Silvio was urinating into the Amazon when a candiru fish swam up his urethra and for four agonising days lodged there with barbed determination until a surgeon sliced it out. Nick’s eyeball was eaten away from inside by a tiny Greek water parasite. Dr Marianne Parry visited Africa as a charity worker where she was infected by the Microscopic worm, which causes elephantiasis. This blocks the body's tissue-drainage system causing huge swellings of the limbs. There is no cure.

Parasites dominate humans. They feed in us, reproduce in us and use us to raise their young. With a continual battle being played out between parasites and their human hosts, BodySnatchers takes a closer look at the human cost of what these invaders bring and reveals that, contrary to popular belief, not all parasites are as are bad as people think. Those that are, though, include the flesh-eating parasite which unlucky Jenny Anderson caught on her foot while on holiday. Informed that she risked facial disfigurement unless treated, Jenny had to spend weeks – including much of her 21st birthday – stuck in a hospital. Meanwhile in the USA, Jonathon Bardon was struck down by something far more unforgiving. He had somehow fallen prey to malaria. The disease – transmitted by mosquitoes – caused by a parasitic protozoan, which it was thought to have been eradicated from most of the developed world. Worryingly however, Jonathan had never left the country.

In November 2002, John and Lucinda were visiting New York when they were admitted to the Beth Israel Medical Centre after John fell seriously ill. A reporter dispatched to the hospital described their situation as something most doctors had never seen, something that hadn’t been reported in New York in over a century. John and Lucinda had been put in isolation after exhibiting classic symptoms of bubonic plague. The final episode of BodySnatchers deals with the most deadly form of parasite, the micro-parasite. To the untrained eye, they are the simplest of all organisms – tiny, single-celled, and invisible. In reality, they are infinitely complex, highly adapted and absolutely lethal. From tuberculosis to the Black Death, the micro-parasite has spread a trail of havoc across the planet, being responsible for untold millions of deaths.