These killers lie dormant, waiting for the right time to strike. Eleven-month-old Garrett Richardson ingests the eggs of a worm, and within days the creature travels to his brain and goes about feeding on its tissue. A Vietnam veteran survived the enemy attacks on the front lines, but back at home — unknown to him — a killer is stealthily working its way through his body, laying waste to his organs and lymph system. By the time the medical evidence reveals the source many years later, the killer is long gone. And John Figge and many of his family members live for six years with unwanted hitchhikers from Africa traveling around in their bodies. Only when one of these creatures begins to attack John's brain are they discovered. Can the family get rid of these deadly parasites before the damage is critical? These are all stealthy predators that get inside their hosts, yet work on very different timetables. Dangerous and often hard to detect, this is the story of the war on sleeper cell parasites.
Across the United States, doctors and scientists are fighting a war against some of nature's deadliest creatures — parasites. It is a race against time when a mysterious organism strikes a mid-western city causing the worst parasitic outbreak in the history of the United States. Before the culprit is contained, 100 innocent people have died. In Chicago, doctors must track down a hidden killer that attacks a group of students on a spring break trip, and a flesh-eating monster is on the loose in a Texas community.
Perfecting the art of reproduction have made parasites the most successful life form on the planet. There are some who are violent, manipulative and have taken sex to the extreme. These parasites are sex maniacs. A New Jersey woman finds her apartment infested with one of the most ubiquitous parasites on earth — bed bugs. Part of the reason for their success is the males' aggressive approach to sex, a method known as "traumatic insemination." A cyclist from Colorado discovers that the insect bites on his head are from botflies. In Oklahoma, a chemical sprayer's cough turns out to be the result of parasitic worms that multiply in the human lung.
Parasites are ruthless, single-minded and above all devious. To become the most prolific life forms in the world takes a degree of cunning that others can only marvel at. Meet the most deceptive parasites on the planet, the "Masters of Disguise." Teenager Mallorie Greiner has Acanthamoeba keratitis, a parasite that's intent on eating her cornea. Doctors are bewildered at first because her symptoms look just like herpes. Runner Rick DiMichele is struck down with a debilitating disease. Initially, doctors think it's cancer, then malaria; eventually, they discover he has a tick-borne disease called Babesiosis. And not until he's staring death in the face do Mohammed Meah's doctors find the real cause of his problem: a parasitic worm called Strongyloides that's been lurking undetected in his small intestine and living off the steroids he was taking to combat his colitis.
Nature is a war zone and parasites are the ultimate fighters. They are hungry, they are ruthless and they don't play by the rules. Parasites have evolved countless ways of hijacking their hosts' bodies: some steal food from inside the gut, others lurk in the blood sapping their host's nutrients and some even target their host's brain. These are some of the most horrific cases of parasitic infection in the United States. In Virginia a vicious creature is on the rampage, its next victim is an innocent child. In Michigan a brutal killer has invaded a traveler's blood, and a summer's day at a Florida lake turns into a nightmare when a ruthless monster attacks a young boy's brain.
Across the planet, a battle is raging, between parasites and their hosts. There is hardly an organism on this planet that doesn't have parasites that are trying to get at it. Some parasites destroy their hosts with terrifying speed, while others have a more cunning strategy: they keep their host alive for as long as possible. They lurk inside the body and steal their host's nutrients. Some of these parasites are almost impossible to kill. They can evade the immune systems. They can hide in the darkest recesses of the body, and they can survive the most powerful drugs. Once they strike, their victims are condemned to a life sentence of living with the enemy inside them. In Virginia a young woman is attacked by an invincible brain-eating monster that threatens to take her life. A Midwestern farmer does battle with a beast that cannot be killed and a New Yorker is infected with the deadliest parasite on the planet. Three parasites that are almost impossible to destroy; three victims, fighting for their lives. If doctors cannot cure them their only hope of survival is by living with the enemy inside them.
A fit and active dance instructor is suddenly stopped in her tracks by unbearable abdominal pain and vomiting, and a mysterious mass in her colon is revealed to have decaying worms. A middle-aged banker gets seizures from a parasite he picked up from traveling to his home country, Haiti. A scientist finds worms from Africa that threaten to damage his sight living in his skin and eyes.
A schoolteacher deals with an amoeba that eats at his liver and causes him high fever, abdominal pain, sweating, and chills. A young dancer gets worms from eating contaminated pork in her muscle tissue, causing her to get hives all over her body and her limbs to become stiff and painful. A retiree gets scabies from mites he got from staying in the hospital in the past.
A nine-year-old hockey player comes down with encephalitis from the Acanthamoeba, which causes him to lose his concentration and balance, almost killing him. A computer programmer gets severe malaria from the Plasmodium parasite that makes him lose control of his mind and post-malarial neurological symptoms two weeks after an apparent recovery. A marathon runner deals with Leishmaniasis, which causes his spleen to swell.
The Crytosporidium parasite infects a little girl, causing her severe vomiting and diarrhea. A microscopic amoeba kills a firefighter with an autoimmune disorder by causing him meningitis. A rare, vicious tapeworm detaches the retina in a teenaged girl, destroying vision in her left eye.
A young college student gets a strange wound that slowly grows and oozes from Leishmaniasis after traveling to two countries from South America. An animal volunteer deals with a cat hookworm when a kitten scratches her on the chest. A couple deal with a strange rash that spreads on their bodies from a parasite they picked up after eating sushi in Africa.
A carpenter deals with the Japanese lung fluke, which causes him to have trouble breathing, from eating live crabs. A bike rider develops a rash on her groin and upper thighs from a parasitic worm called Schistosoma, which could possibly give her bladder cancer. A guidance counselor, who was an army veteran, develops an insatiable appetite, unusual weight loss, and abdominal pain pulls out a parasitic roundworm called Ascaris lumbricoides, which he picked up from eating contaminated food while serving in the army.
A teenaged boy gets a maggot in his eye, making it impossible for him to see clearly. A construction worker deals with a tumor-like mass from a parasitic tapeworm that causes him severe pain in his pelvis and legs. A nine-year-old girl gets infected with the Giardia parasite, which gives her severe stomach cramps.
A peace volunteer deals with a leech in his nose, which gives him a strange nosebleed. A nature-loving landscaper gets a severe allergic reaction when he gets multiple bee stings at once and infects himself with the hookworm parasite to relieve his symptoms. A six-year-old girl gets a strange red spot on her foot from having a maggot in her foot.
A middle-aged man who has been caring for his ailing mother gets Babesiosis from walking barefoot to the mailbox. Since he lost his spleen from cancer, he gets severe diarrhea, in addition to fever, fatigue, and night sweats. An active, busy middle-aged woman experiences stomach cramps, explosive diarrhea, lightheadedness, and blurred vision from the Toxocara parasite, which she probably got from contaminated food. An older mother of five children deals with nausea, loss of appetite, muscle spasms, and vomiting from the Strongyloides worm, which she may have picked up from being in contact with infected soil. Because of steroids she took for her breathing problems, her body became more vulnerable to the parasite.
A seven-year-old girl suffers from seizures from a pork tapeworm after being adopted at the age of three from Nepal. A forty-five-year-old machinist deals with blurry and double vision, leaving him legally blind in his left eye, from a raccoon roundworm that he picked up from his turkey hunting. A forty-one-year-old anaethesiologists, along with twenty-eight other anaethesiologists from two different counties, suffer from stomach cramps and crippling diarrhea from the Cyclospora parasite after eating raspberries infected with human feces.
Three people must stand before the face of death. One is a toddler from Ohio, who stops eating and suffers bizarre salt cravings. When her parents realize she's no longer growing, doctors are puzzled. What could be lurking inside her?
A successful model's first steps into motherhood run her straight into a web of blood, pain, and sheer terror. What lurking menace could take this woman to the brink of suicide?
An adventurous traveler, Adam Spencer takes an epic six month trip across South America but returns home with an unwanted monster... a mysterious infection that is devouring his face. Will doctors be able to identify this disfiguring monster?
A young newlywed suffers horrific seizures, and inexplicable delusions that transform this perfectly healthy woman into a complete basket case. Will her doctors be able to tease out this monster hijacking her body? Then, a man loses 50lbs from a parasite.
In Oregon, something inexplicable is driving auto specialist Chris Jones to madness. After two years of constant coughing and uncomfortable insomnia, he soon believes that death will be his only respite. Will his doctors uncover the monster inside him?
A pregnant teacher is blindsided by excruciating bouts of diarrhea, and to her horror she soon finds blood in the toilet. Can doctors find the invader, and save her baby's life before it's too late? Then, a truck driver nearly goes blind from a parasite.
A young mother is expecting her second child when she suddenly is hit with a devastating infection that leaves her in a coma. Will she and her baby survive? Then a young woman in Texas discovers that her lungs are filled with parasitic worms.
The Rauch family dodges a bullet when their prematurely born child Emmet survives for a year. But when he mysteriously coughs up blood, doctors are shocked to find a modern monster destroying his fragile body from within.
In Arlington, Texas, a 7 year old budding baseball star might be playing his last game when a rare and mysterious infection takes over his brain. Suffering violent and uncontrollable seizures, the situation leaves his parents traumatized. Will he make it?
In Fontana, California, a man is suddenly struck by two mystifying symptoms - a swollen face and yellow eyes. Doctors tell his father that powerful infection is raging throughout his son's body, shutting down his organs.
A seven-year-old girl suffers from mysterious seizures and painful rashes and winds up in a deadly coma. A a yoga-loving college graduate's health spirals viciously out of control when "the flu" turns out to be a flesh-eating monster.
A teenaged ballerina descends into a downward spiral of debilitating migraines and incapacitating muscle failures. A young missionary who's dedicated to religion experiences an unholy revelation that literally makes his skin crawl.
A perky eight year old girl's love of animals comes back to bite her as she enters a world of mysterious body aches and life-threatening paralysis.
A mother-of-four struggles with a mysterious lump that emerges on the neck of her two-year-old daughter. But as doctors quarantine her, it's a race against time to save her life.
A small-town boy's summer fun is cut short by an apparent flu that suddenly transforms into a life-threatening condition. An extreme case of asthma strikes a former beauty queen.
Three mothers, each with a child to love; each at the brink of losing them. A young Peace Corps volunteer gets the assignment of her dreams in a remote village in West Africa. But, her dreams become a nightmare when a deadly organism strikes her.
Three vibrant people, each with strong family bonds, each ripped apart by an insidious monster. A teenager dodges death when he survives getting sucked into a tornado. When his trauma wounds mysteriously don't heal, doctors discover a hideous infection.
Three families enjoy the bounties of nature, and all of them suffer its wrath. A young girl's love of swimming comes back to haunt her when she develops severe headaches, nausea, and a bizarre rash all over her body. The cause sends everyone reeling.
It's Christmas, and a young globe-trotting couple returns home for some holiday cheer only to discover some sly stowaways that bite, suck, and consume the flesh. A family man discovers that something is eating his heart out, literally.
Three deadly illnesses darken the future of three young boys. In Illinois, a mother thinks her newborn son has something wrong with his eyes. When doctors analyze the boy further, they discover something is eating his eyes and brain. Can he be saved?
3 women living in vastly different locales have one thing in common: they've become unwitting hosts to baffling and deadly terrors. A teenage girl thinks she might be losing her mind, but see soon realizes she has a life threatening inflammation of the brain.
When three unsuspecting young families are thrown into a tailspin, they are shocked to learn of the tiny culprits wreaking havoc on their lives. First, a married couple in California watch helplessly as their son struggles for every last breath.
A Massachusetts EMT is shattered by a routine emergency call when she discovers that the victim is her son. A self-described tough guy in New Jersey is reduced to tears when something sinister starts to rip apart his intestines.
Disaster befalls three individuals who are suddenly living their worst nightmares. A contractor suffers a bump on his head while he is working, but days later, he finds himself in the ICU fighting for his life with something in his brain.
The lives of three young people are suddenly turned upside down. In South Dakota, what begins as a common sore throat quickly spirals out of control for a fifteen year old girl, as a rare and dangerous affliction leaves her clinging to life.
A war veteran, a PhD scientist, and a newborn, all clinging to life by a string. In Tennessee, new parents are horrified when a deadly infection pushes their baby daughter to the brink of death.
Christmas time is here, and these three victims each receive a monstrous gift. In Florida, a woman is out Christmas shopping when she suddenly feels a stabbing pain in her eye so severe that she believes she sees shadows of worms in her eye.
Trouble is lurking in the bodies of three different women. In rural Washington State, a teenager's shoulder pain leads to her being quarantined in a matter of days. If doctors can't determine what's attacking her, she'll die.
Three lively people suddenly come face to face with their own mortality. In Virginia, a teen suffers seizures and sudden blindness, when doctors discover her brain is under attack.
Three healthy people with a love of the outdoors are struck down by a deadly menace that lurks inside them. In Ohio, a young boy wastes away in front of his parents' eyes as a mysterious infection overtakes his body.
A 4-year-old boy literally drowns in his own mucus, being a victim of an outbreak of the Enterovirus D68 virus; a 7-year old scraps his knee on a rock at the beach, but when his father puts a liquid bandage on it, it causes it to swell the size of an orange - then, his mother squeezes the wound and finds a snail inside; a college student experiences loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, jaundice, and repetitive nightmares that turn into a reality from getting infected with malaria after returning from a trip to Ghana.
An athlete gets headaches, stomach pains, breathing difficulties, and a liver mass from entamoeba histolytica; a teenager develops a leg welt and then gets fatigue and red spots on his body over the course of several years. When the spots open, the doctors discover he has leprosy; a woman suffers severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, and seizures from E. rostratum.
During a fishing vacation, a soccer coach goes into septic shock from V. vulnificus necrotizing fasciitis; a 7-year-old girl gets facial tics, bouts of anxiety, and turns suicidal after a streptococcal brain infection; A makeup artist gets severe stomach cramps and watery diarrhea from Giardia lamblia.
A newlywed woman gets extreme headaches, memory problems, sinus pressure, and painful rashes, while her husband gets endless nosebleeds, breathing problems, and brain fog from aspergillus; a councilman loses his spleen to visceral leishmaniasis; a 6-year-old gets a fever, red spots, a hurting mouth, loss of appetite, leg weakness, and breathing difficulties from rat bite fever.
An 11-month-old boy experiences wheezing and vomiting after swallowing a button battery; a landscaper becomes infected with paragonimus kellicotti; a female boxer gets a severe headache, a 105 fever, and impaired vision from cat scratch fever.
A 2-year-old girl experiences severe pain and vomiting from a bark scorpion sting; a neuroscientist experiences multi-organ failure and nearly dies from leptospirosis; a 20-year-old woman suffers from severe vomiting and extreme headaches that turn out to be caused by balamuthia mandrillaris.
A young collage student contracts acanthamoeba keratitis from sleeping in her contact lenses; an infant becomes temporarily paralyzed and almost dies from accidental ingestion of soil that contained the most deadly toxin known to science, botulinum toxin; a new mother has extreme pain from a piece of gauze (surgical sponge) that was left inside her abdomen during a C-Section.
A California teenager is unable to breathe after contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; a Hawaiian personal trainer suffers years of neuropathic pain from ciguatera poisoning; a Michigan health worker nearly dies from babesiosis.
A baby is having problems controlling the left side of her body, before doctors discover the right side of her brain is malformed; a PR executive suffers a mysterious ailment over the course of an entire year; seizures ruin a schoolteacher's Thanksgiving, and they worsen around Christmas.
A teenager turns feverish and fatigued when he gets a cut on his knee; a couple move into a new home to nasty rashes, breathing difficulties, and memory loss; something is destroying an 8-year-old's retinas.
Doctors race to find out why a teen is vomiting his own fecal matter.
A globe-trotting man's mild groin discomfort develops into paralyzing pain.
Sea creatures cause crippling pain in the hand of a marina dock master.
A mom is plagued by an infection that causes a rash and bizarre swelling.
A man develops a rash and doctors struggle to find what's eating his flesh.
A woman's body is turned against itself, driving her to near insanity.
A Christmas baby is born and doctors find her brain was infected in utero.
A young girl is brought to the hospital with stabbing pains in her scalp; a mother's mysterious symptoms threaten to tear a family apart; a deadly invader turns a relaxing vacation into a nightmare.
A man falls comatose; a college student's deadly sore throat; a woman's bizarre symptoms confound experts.
A man experiences strange swelling around his eye; a young girl falls mysteriously ill; a bizarre set of symptoms leave a young woman on the edge of madness.
An infant falls mysteriously ill; a biology professor becomes an unexpected host; a family man is brought to the brink.
Doctors discover an invader in a young man's brain; a new mother is in critical condition; a young boy's illness defies antibiotics.
A toddler falls into a trance-like state; a strange condition strikes a boy; a woman's symptoms push her to madness.
A teenager develops mysterious blotchy sores; an athlete is struck down by a rare disease; a woman battles strange bouts of vomiting.
A man coughs up blood; a newlywed husband is felled by a rare disease; a father struggles with abdominal pain.
An infant is suddenly paralyzed; a young father grapples with a monster that threatens to blind him; a woman's excruciating pain confounds experts.
A dangerous parasite strikes a woman down; an infant suffers a mysterious illness; a fungus brings a man to the brink of death.
After a man hits his head, he's left fighting a one-on-a-million medical mystery; a boy's wounded knee becomes home to an uninvited guest; a man unwittingly feeds his own intended killer.
A strange growth develops on a man's wrist; a nurse finds twig-like pieces in her urine; a pregnant woman falls ill with flu-like symptoms.
Three unsuspecting victims see the holidays turn from a time of joy and merriment to fear and agonizing pain as they battle against mystery attackers trying to destroy them from the inside out.
