Heartworms

[Kritters]

Hey everyone,

I don't know how I came to get focused on this today. One key word brought me to it, I guess. If any of this was covered before, I didn't do a search. In anycase....has anyone thought of the human version of the heartworm?

HEARTWORM
1. A filarial worm (Dirofilaria immitis) transmitted by mosquitoes and parasitic in the heart and associated blood vessels of dogs and other canids.
2. The condition resulting from infestation with the heartworm.
Human health considerations
The dog heartworm is of negligible public health risk, because it is unusual for humans to become infected. Additionally, human infections usually are of little or no consequence, although rarely an infected human may show signs of respiratory disease. In most cases, however, the heartworm dies shortly after arriving in the human lung, and a nodule, known as a granuloma, forms around the dead worm as it is being killed and absorbed. If an infected person happens to have a chest X-ray following granuloma formation, the nodule may be large enough to resemble lung cancer on the X-ray and require a biopsy for a pathologic assessment. This may well be the most significant medical consequence of human infection by the dog heartworm.
Can you imagine this???? Only if the granuloma becomes large enough to be thought a tumor would they even know there is a roundworm in the body causing disease!!!At one time it was thought that the dog heartworm infected the human eye, with most cases reported from the southeastern United States. However, these cases are now thought to be caused by a closely-related parasite of raccoons, Dirofilaria tenuis. Several hundred cases of subcutaneous infections in humans have been reported in Europe, but these are almost always caused by another closely-related parasite, Dirofilaria repens, rather than the dog heartworm.
Dirofilaria repens: Information from Answers.com

1. Hira PR, Madda JP, al-Shamali MA, Eberhard ML (November 1994). "Dirofilariasis in Kuwait: first report of human infection due to Dirofilaria repens in the Arabian Gulf". Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 51 (5): 590–2. PMID 7985751. Dirofilariasis in Kuwait: First Report of Human Infection Due to Dirofilaria repens in the Arabian Gulf -- Hira et al. 51 (5): 590 -- American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

I couldn’t open the link above (about being found in Kuwait) without paying for it. So, anyway, it’s a form of heartworm. I read somewhere that one manifestation of heartworm is cutaneous lesions on dogs. Also….the body creates granulomas to isolate and contain the worms if it can’t eliminate them. Some of us have lumps on the skin in places.
granuloma: Definition from Answers.com granuloma

A granuloma is a medical term for a ball-like collection of immune cells which forms when the immune system attempts to wall off substances that it perceives as foreign but is unable to eliminate. Such substances include infectious organisms such as bacteria and fungi as well as other materials such as keratin, suture fragments and vegetable particles. A granuloma is therefore a special type of inflammatory reaction that can occur in a wide variety of diseases, both infectious and non-infectious.
microfilaria: Definition from Answers.com
The larva of worms in the superfamily Filarioidea. They are produced by adult worms residing in the bloodstream, tissues or body cavities, from where they can be ingested by biting insects. There they pass through a developmental stage and are transmitted to another permanent host when it is bitten by the insect. The microfilariae of some species are nocturnal and are therefore available for transmission only at night.
The microfilariae of some species are nocturnal and are therefore available for transmission only at night.[]I remember reading about how parasites place themselves in the position of being readily available for the next pathogen or host to find for transmission to the next or final host. Some parasites in fish actually cause the fish to flop around near the top of the water to be easily noticed by the bird that will be its next host. Amazing, huh?
So, this could explain all the nocturnal activity of biting and moving to the top dermal layers possibly waiting for the insect to find it?arthropod: Definition from Answers.com anthropod
Chitin: A tough, protective, semitransparent substance, primarily a nitrogen-containing polysaccharide, forming the principal component of arthropod exoskeletons and the cell walls of certain fungi.

We spoke of chitin some time ago, remember? It’s in insects (like flies) and crustaceans (like abalone)….made of polysaccharide (sugar)…which (sorry, forget who) said is what the morgellons fibers are made of…..AND…cell walls of certain FUNGI…
Realizing, of course that these are all things in nature, I just like to take notice in case we can find some relationships.

Could be a 'mutated' form of the heartworm.....

xoxoKritts

[Katinka]

Great Kritts,
I think we should hang on to this..very interesting.
Let's do some more research?
Kat

[Kritters]

you got it Katink. You know, I had been under the impression that after a mosquito stung someone, it died. I think I might have confused that (who dwelled on bugs and parasites for any length of time then?) with the bee? Anyway, think of all the people with dogs and cats in their home, and have a few mosquitos that flew in from an open door? So the same mosquito that bit the dog that has heartworms bites the human in the house.I realize this is very basic thinking, but I will leave no worm unturned (as it leaves no earth unturned) or unscrutinized, esp. if it has many of the features and circumstances which are applicable to Morgellons. Skin lesions, undetection, mosquito vector, chitin, micro-filarial worms, symptoms.....and more.

Down-playing human host implications mean NOTHING to me in light of what has been down-played by the informational sources in many other major diseases. Gosh, we don't know what causes it, and geez, we don't know what cures it. A veil of ignorance. So, they find human cases of heartworm in Kuwait? I don't have to read the article.

By the way, I realize this may be nothing, but in the photo of the heartworms, I noticed many blue and many red and variations of color. No stone unturned.

It really doesn't seem to be a difficult thing to combine dna of a heartworm, fungus, protein, bacteria and virus.....or have it mutate into a pathogenic form just by introduction of some agrobacterium, or mycoplasma..bacterio-fungus or whatever in in the water supply....a bacteria containing pesticide? ...WHO WOULD KNOW???????

The larvae comes to the surface of the skin (esp. at night )to be found by a mosquito n order to complete its lifecycle in another host. It doesn't know WHY it is in a human host, but nevertheless....tries to do its thing. Meanwhile, the human host employs its immune system (limited faced with today's super organisms) and surrounds the foreign matter with galls or granulomas......OR SURROUNDS IT WITH PHAGOCYTIC FUNGI....and you've got part deformed insect, or larvae, etc. wrapped up in a fungi trap. Meanwhile, the chitin (composed of polysaccharides...sugar) from the insect needs to be expelled, as well as bits and pieces of the other foreign bodies and something like possibly fungi takes over and pushes it all through the pores out of the body, or wraps it up in the fungi cocoon and it's too large for the body to push out through the skin and it can't dissolve it.

Just thinking.

Kritts

[Sadsack]

Kritters -

Mosquitoes "feed", those damned blood-suckers! When bees sting, they are attacking and leave their stinger behind in whatever they've stung (they don't use their mouth). Mosquitoes introduce whatever pathogens they are carrying, the equivalent of using a dirty needle to draw blood.

Don't know about the rest of it....no ideas....

SS

[tcmgpt13]

What bothers me most (think I mentioned this when writing about parasitic infections which can spread) is the fact that we have so many people from cultures which have parasites which have not been seen in the US or at least not seen in a long time, malaria being one which in the past was prevalent in the more southern humid areas of the US. Diseases like guinea worms (we, btw, have relatives of these worms in the nothern hemisphere, which allegedly are only found in raccoons and some other wild animals though there is some discussion saying it may not just be these animals), leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis from the middle East, chagas (a type of leishmaniasis), sleeping sicknesss and others too numerous to mention, are no doubt entering the US and spreading through insect vectors. Also, more unpleasantly, perhaps these are also in the sewage systems and spetic tanks where they could also spread. Just think of all the retreated gray water. How much does or does not get killed after treatment? Fresh water liver flukes anyone?).

[Kritters]

Exactly, SS

And what gets ME is that most (I think I'm being kind here) doctors (including dermatologists) are clueless about the signs of parasitic infection. When I hear people tell the stories of what was wrong with them, such as cutaneous lesions, auto-immune symptoms, palpatations, etc......the doctors not only just give medication, but never look for deeper implications of a cause. Our doctors are ruled by big pharma (as we here all know) and all they have to do is go down the list of drugs and what they do to prescribe them. Whereas in European countries, like Italy, they seem so much more advanced and progressive in their thinking AWAY from pharmaceutical bandaids and TOWARD a deeper look-see into the cause (like Dr. Simoncini, for instance) Yes, we have such doctors here, but they are not the average. I think all MD's should also be veterinarians so they at least have some concept that WE are in fact, animals as well. (although not as evolved LOL)
Kritts

[Kritters]

"...It doesn’t matter whether your dog is a pampered pooch or is active and strong, every dog is at risk for getting heartworm disease, a potentially deadly condition.

Fortunately, prevention is easy with HEARTGARD (ivermectin) Chewables or HEARTGARD Plus (ivermectin/pyrantel), because dogs prefer the taste of these Real-Beef Chewables 37–1 over the next leading brand!*

Given once a month for life, HEARTGARD or HEARTGARD Plus is the easiest way to help protect your pet from deadly heartworm disease. HEARTGARD Plus also treats and controls hookworms and roundworms."

Does it strike anyone else interesting that a dog can get medication to prevent disease so much easier than a human? Who was it yesterday or today... who said she couldn't get the doc to give her ivermectin? I guess no one is worried about over-population in dogs.

Kritts

[lamb]

My dog has the same thing that I have. I took her in for the 15th time this year (since my recognition of infection), they gave her "Clindamyacin" Hello! Phillip (the guy with the horse training fixation) Ketoconazole 200 mg and hydroxyzine Pamoate 50 mg. She is doing great but pacing like crazy and thirsty, hyper. I am feeling a bit better due to DE and I don't watch TV or follow weather so I don't know if we are post full moon. But maybe these are that meds the fellow is talking about. What say you all?