• Question: What is Parasitism in humans?

    Asked by Harry :-) to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Jodi Schneider

      Jodi Schneider answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Parasites live on, and benefit from, a host. This isn’t always good for the host.

      For instance, your cat or dog could have worms. Then the worm is the parasite and the cat/dog is the host.

      For humans, think about mosquitos, lice, and worms. Ugh!

    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Parasites either live on or in a host animal or plant. They’re interesting because they don’t typically kill the host. So as Jodi said, think worms and lice. One really odd parasite (non-human related) is the Cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in another birds nest so it doesn’t have the raise the young!

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