Monsters Inside Me: Sleeper Cells

An examination of how slow-acting organisms can wreak havoc on the human body. A one year old boy is affected with Baylisascaris procyonis worms that affect his vision and life. A veteran in the vietnam war is affected with Wuchereria bancrofti. A man is an affected with Schistosoma worms that affect his brain.

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.