Monsters Inside Me

MUSIC IN

HOST VO

A young woman is attacked by an invincible brain eating monster.

WENDY BERRIOS VO/OC

It’s just scary.  I could go into a coma and I don’t want to die.

HOST VO

A Midwestern farmer does battle with a beast that cannot be killed.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

My stomach dropped.  I really couldn’t believe what she was telling me.

HOST VO

And a New Yorker is infected with the deadliest parasite on the planet.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

Maybe this is it.  I’ve never, you know, faced death before.

HOST VO

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.

HOST VO

Worms invisible to the human eye.  Insects thirsty for blood.  Microscopic amoeba.  They might look harmless but these are some of nature’s deadliest creatures.  They can hijack our bodies, disable our immune systems.  They are parasites.  But to those infected, they are the Monsters Inside Me.

HOST VO

Across the planet, a battle is raging between parasites and their hosts.

DAN RISKIN OC

Parasitism is a great strategy.  There is hardly an organism on this planet that doesn’t have parasites that are trying to get at it.

HOST VO

Some parasites destroy their hosts with terrifying speed.  But others have a more cunning strategy.  They keep their host alive for as long as possible lurking inside their body and stealing their host’s nutrients.

DAN RISKIN OC

Some of these parasites are almost impossible to kill.  They can invade the immune system.  They can hide in the darkest recesses of the body, and they can survive the most powerful drugs we have.

HOST VO

And once they strike, they leave their victims condemned to a life sentence of living with the enemy inside them.

HOST VO

2004, Centerville, Virginia.  28 year old Wendy Berrios works in the financial industry with her sister, Paola.

WENDY BERRIOS VO/OC

Having my sister Paola has been a blessing in my life.

PAOLA BERRIOS VO/OC

My sister Wendy and I are very close.  Working with her makes it easier.

HOST VO

But Wendy is about to share her life with something far less friendly.

WENDY BERRIOS VO

We were having a party at a, at a park.  And it’s, it’s a summer day.  And we were doing sports.  And we were just at the park all day.

PAOLA BERRIOS VO

It’s really, really hot and Wendy starts feeling bad.

WENDY BERRIOS VO/OC

I start having headaches.  The first thing that comes to my head, “Well I was out in the sun.  So, you know, it should go away.”

PAOLA BERRIOS VO/OC

She wasn’t able to continue to play the games so we decide to leave.  I take my sister home.  I tell her to get some rest and drink plenty of fluid and to call me if she needs anything.

WENDY BERRIOS OC/VO

I take aspirin, but it doesn’t work.  I fall asleep really late and I wake up with a headache.  I’m kind of in shock because this headache just keeps getting worse.  I don’t want to miss work.  So I get ready and I push myself out the door.

HOST VO

But when she gets to the office, Wendy’s condition continues to deteriorate.

PAOLA BERRIOS VO

She’s sitting there with her eyes closed and just crying.

WENDY BERRIOS OC/VO

When I move my eyes, when I move my hands, every little movement I make just creates more pain.

PAOLA BERRIOS VO/OC

It’s hard for me to see my sister not being able to walk.  So without asking or questioning it, I decide to take her to the emergency room.

HOST VO

At the hospital, the doctors have a simple explanation for the headaches.

WENDY BERRIOS VO/OC

They do a physical test.  They check my eyes.  And so they’re telling me that my headaches are coming from being out in the sun all day and being dehydrated.  I’m thinking to myself, “This is from the sun.  It has to be from the sun.”

HOST VO

But Wendy’s sister, Paola, isn’t so sure.

PAOLA BERRIOS VO

I don’t think that this is just a regular headache.  I think it’s more to it, so I demand for the doctors to do an MRI.

HOST VO

The MRI scans reveal that Wendy’s brain has started to swell.  It is under attack.

WENDY BERRIOS VO/OC

After several hours, they return and they tell me that I have ten to 15 parasites around my brain.  I’m shocked.

HOST VO

The parasites in Wendy’s brain are pork tapeworms.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

The pork tapeworm is a particularly nasty parasite.  In 60 percent of the diagnosed cases of pork tapeworm, the victim has cysts inside the brain.  And when you have a cyst in your brain, very bad things can happen.  You can have seizures, coma, hallucinations or possibly even death.

HOST VO

The pork tapeworm has two hosts, humans and pigs.  The parasite form cysts in the tissues of a pig.  If a human eats undercooked pork that contains the cysts, they get infected.  In the human gut, the cysts hatch into adult tapeworms where they can grow up to several meters long.  The adult worms lay eggs that are passed in human feces.  If a pig then eats the feces, the eggs grow into cysts in its muscle tissue and the lifecycle repeats.

DAN RISKIN VO

Where sanitation is not very good, this parasite can be very common.  In some parts of the world, up to six percent of the population harbor this parasite.

HOST VO

In most cases, humans get the parasite by eating contaminated pork.  But a few get infected with they come in contact with egg laden human feces.

DAN RISKIN OC

If you eat undercooked pork, you end up with a tapeworm in your gut.  But if you eat the eggs that have been passed out in feces, then you can end up with the cysts in your tissues and that can be a lot worse.

HOST VO

This is what happened to Wendy.  Wendy grew up in Bolivia.  And doctors think that as a child she ate some food contaminated with egg laden feces.  The eggs developed into larvae that burrowed into her brain and formed cysts.  For years, these cysts lie dormant and produce no symptoms.  But slowly the cysts start to grow releasing toxins into the tissue and causing the brain to become dangerously enflamed.  

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

Attacking the human brain is a very cunning strategy for a parasite because not only does it have a lot of oxygen and nutrients, it’s also a place that is very hard for the immune system to get to.  And so it’s very hard for the host to get the parasite out.

HOST VO

Wendy is put into the care of Dr. Carlos Pardo, a Clinical Neurologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.  Dr. Pardo begins by examining the MRI scans of Wendy’s brain.

DR. CARLOS PARDO VO/OC

In Wendy’s case, the normal structure of the brain cavity was abnormal.

HOST VO

There is an irregular accumulation of fluid in Wendy’s brain.

DR. CARLOS PARDO VO/OC

So when we see excess fluid in, inside of the brain we call this Hydrocephalus.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

Hydrocephalus is the very dangerous buildup of cerebrospinal fluid around and inside the brain.

HOST VO

This fluid circulates through passages called ventricles which connect to the spine.  In Wendy’s brain, one of the parasites has latched onto a ventricle, restricting the flow of fluid out of her brain.  As the fluid builds up, the pressure on her brain increases.

WENDY BERRIOS OC/VO

I’m thinking to myself, “I’m, you know, I’m young.”  And I just couldn’t believe that this, it was happening to me.

DR. CARLOS PARDO OC

She may collapse and die.

HOST VO

Wendy Berrios has parasitic cysts growing in her brain.  They are restricting the flow of spinal fluid, and causing a condition called Hydrocephalus.  Left untreated, it’s deadly.  But killing the parasite is extremely difficult.

DAN RISKIN VO

Once a parasite gets inside the brain, it poses an especially difficult problem to the host that’s trying to get rid of it.  The brain is separated from the rest of the body by something that’s called the blood brain barrier.  So in other words, blood does not flow through the brain.  And that means white blood cells cannot get to the brain.  So if a parasite gets inside the brain, the body’s in big trouble because it doesn’t have the normal immune response necessary to fight the parasite.

HOST VO

The only way to kill the parasite is with a powerful drug called Albendazole which starves it to death.

HOST VO

At first, the treatment seems to be working.

WENDY BERRIOS VO

I am doing well.  I have my ups and downs.  Overall, the approach helps.  But the headache, it’s still there.

HOST VO

Three years go by and the treatment seems to have killed the parasite or has it?

WENDY BERRIOS VO

It’s May.  I’m in my living room and I’m talking to Paola.  All of a sudden, I have this headache again.  I cannot bear the pain anymore.  And at this point, I know something has to be wrong again.

HOST VO

Wendy rushes back to the hospital where she is given another MRI.  When the results come back, the doctors give Wendy the news she’s been dreading.  One of the parasitic cysts survived the treatment.  It is still living in her brain.

DR. CARLOS PARDO OC/VO

Unfortunately, the anti-parasitic treatment was inefficient in killing the parasite located in the ventricle.

HOST VO

The parasite is once again restricting the flow of spinal fluid, putting her brain under massive pressure.  Wendy must face the reality that it may be impossible to kill the parasite in her brain.  The doctors have only one option left, brain surgery.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

In some cases, it’s actually possible to open up the brain and take the cyst out.

HOST VO

But in Wendy’s case, the cyst has latched onto a highly sensitive part of her brain, and removing the parasite is impossible.  The surgeons are left with only one option.  To relieve the pressure, they must reroute the spinal fluid by cutting tiny holes in the brain’s tissue.  If successful, this will allow the fluid to drain away relieving the pressure on the brain.  But even this won’t kill the parasite.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

The goal of the surgery is not to remove the parasite, but to relieve the pressure on the brain.

WENDY BERRIOS OC/VO

They say if I don’t have the surgery then I might go into a coma.  I could go blind, and it’s just, it’s just scary.  And I don’t want to die.  My sister sees me crying and suffering.  She doesn’t want me to go through this.  And I feel bad because she has to go through this with me.  

PAOLA BERRIOS VO/OC

I’m afraid to lose my sister.  And I’m praying that she’ll make it through the surgery.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

The brain is a very sensitive and important organ in the body.  So any time that surgery’s done on the brain, there’s always a high level of risk.

HOST VO

For two hours, the neurosurgeons battle to save Wendy’s life.

PAOLA BERRIOS OC/VO

When she wakes up, I didn’t recognize my sister.  She was swollen and I saw how they cut her head.  I’m relieved because I know that she’s conscious and safe.

WENDY BERRIOS OC/VO

So I wake up and the first person I see is my sister.  It was just a great feeling.

HOST VO

Three months later, Wendy has made a full recovery and her life has returned to normal, apart from one thing.  She will spend the rest of her life living with the parasitic cyst lodged in her brain.  But because the surgeons have established a new route for the spinal fluid, her life is no longer in any danger.

DR. CARLOS PARDO VO/OC

Wendy will continue having the parasite in the ventricular system.  But, fortunately, with the surgical treatment approach, the pressure in the brain is going to be normalized.

WENDY BERRIOS VO/OC

I’m back to work.  I’m doing things that I used to before I got sick.  I have learned that what doesn’t kill you, it actually makes you stronger.

HOST VO

The pork tapeworm is one of the most common parasites to affect humans.  It infects over 50 million people worldwide.  The best way to avoid it is to wash your hands before and after handling food.  And if you eat pork, make sure that it’s cooked all the way through.

DAN RISKIN VO

One of the reasons that the pork tapeworm is so nasty because once it forms a cyst inside the brain, it’s almost impossible to kill.  If you get the right medical treatment, sometimes living with the parasite for your entire life can be manageable.  But in other cases, a person who gets a parasite has their life changed forever.

HOST VO

1993, Shannon, Illinois.  Lori Moll is raising her 12 year old son, Jonathan.  Shannon is a rural community, and Jonathan often helps out at the local farm.

LORI MOLL VO/OC

Any opportunity he could, he’d go to the farm and help milk cows and ride the tractors.

HOST VO

But their idyllic rural life is about to be shattered.

LORI MOLL VO

John wears glasses and he was mentioning that his vision was starting to get more blurry.  We’d take him to see the doctor, get the regular eye exam as usual.

HOST VO

Jonathan reads the eye chart perfectly with his left eye.  But when he tries with his right, he can barely see anything.  The optician asks Jonathan to draw and shade in the area that he can’t see out of in his right eye.  The results are deeply disturbing.  75 percent of the vision in Jonathan’s right eye has disappeared.  Why, is a mystery?  So the optician refers him to a specialist.

LORI MOLL OC/VO

I was worried a little bit, but we just went ahead to go see the specialist.

HOST VO

The specialist examines Jonathan’s eye and conducts further tests.  The results will change his life forever.

LORI MOLL VO/OC

My heart sank.  You don’t want your child to go blind.

HOST VO

The most effective way of avoiding the pork tapeworm is to do which of the following:  A, boil water before drinking.  B, avoid eating undercooked pork.  C, worm pets regularly.

HOST VO

The most effective way of avoiding the pork tapeworm is to avoid eating undercooked pork.

HOST VO

12 year old Jonathan Steen has lost 75 percent of the vision in his right eye.  To find out why, his doctor conducts a series of tests.  When the results come back, Jonathan’s mother is devastated.

LORI MOLL VO

She said it’s a parasite that attacks the retina, and it leads to blindness.  My heart sank.

HOST VO

Jonathan has been attacked by a protozoan parasite called Toxoplasma gondii.

HOST VO

The parasite travels through the human body in the blood.  When it reaches the tissues, it burst out and attacks the surrounding cells.  When the body’s white blood cells attack the parasite, the surrounding tissues become enflamed.  If the parasite gets into the eye, this inflammatory response damages the retina causing blindness.

LORI MOLL OC/VO

She said his eyesight was already gone in this eye.  So there was nothing they could do about his eyesight.

HOST VO

Jonathan’s immune system has brought the infection under control, but the parasite has been stopped, not killed.  It is still lurking within him.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

One of the reasons that Toxoplamsa is so successful as a parasite is that once it’s inside the body, it’s almost impossible to destroy.  When the Toxoplasma parasite gets attacked by the immune system or by drugs, it forms a cyst that is almost indestructible.  The immune system can keep this parasite at bay but it can’t kill it.  Once the human gets the Toxoplasma parasite, they will have it for the rest of their life.

HOST VO

But how did the parasite get into Jonathan’s eye in the first place?  Toxoplasmosis primarily infects cats and rodents.  The parasite breed in the small intestines of an infected cat where it produces millions of spores.  These spores are excreted in the cat’s feces.  When rodents eat contaminated feces, they too become infected.  When a cat eats an infected rodent, the parasite’s lifecycle is complete.  But if a human eats the infected feces, then they can become infected.  

HOST VO

Doctors think that Jonathan got the parasite through putting contaminated dirt into his mouth.

LORI MOLL VO

After we found out what it is, Jonathan just kept living life like he usually does and like a 12 year old boy and playing and being with his friends.

HOST VO

Jonathan graduates with a degree in Heavy Equipment Mechanics.  He marries Stephanie and together with their two kids, they live on her family farm in Illinois.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

I work on the farm, do mechanical work on the equipment.  We have croppable acres and animals.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO/OC

We’re living on my father’s farm.  And just farming and living life.

HOST VO

But one day, 13 years after losing the sight in his right eye, Jonathan wakes up to a burning pain in his left eye.  At first he assumes that he has something called welder’s burn.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

Welder’s burn is very painful.  It’s like somebody threw sand in your eye and it, like you just want to scratch your eyes out.

HOST VO

A welder’s burn is an inflammation of the clear tissue that covers the front of the eye called the cornea.  It’s caused by looking at very bright lights without eye protection.  Mild cases usually heal overtime with no after effects.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

And I said, “Well, it’ll go away.”  And just went about my day doing what I normally do.

HOST VO

But the pain doesn’t go away.  And then while driving his tractor, Jonathan makes an alarming discovery.

JONATHAN STEEN OC

I was going to round bale hay and I, I couldn’t make out the monitor.  At that point I knew something was wrong.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO

He called me and told me that eye was hurting him.  His vision was blurry.

HOST VO

Stephanie rushes him to the local eye doctor.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO

I drive him in there.  He can’t see.  Everything’s blurry.  And he couldn’t even make out the figure of my face.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

They did a routine eye exam.  They did a routine medical check as far as asking me all the basic questions.  They drew blood.  Did blood work.  They looked up close with a magnifying glass and a bright light into my left eye and also my right eye.  They came to the conclusion that it was toxoplasmosis in my left eye.  And they explained there’s no cure for it.

STEPHANIE STEEN OC

She tells us that she believes his toxo has come back.

HOST VO

13 years after he lost the use of his right eye, suddenly it looks like he’s about to lose his left.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

I feel very upset.  I, my stomach dropped.  I really couldn’t believe what she was telling me.

HOST VO

For the last 13 years, the parasite has been lurking somewhere in Jonathan’s body kept in check by his immune system.

DAN RISKIN VO

The human immune system is very good at controlling the Toxoplasma parasite.  In some parts of the world, 80 percent of the human population have this parasite and don’t even know it.  But if the human immune system is compromised, this parasite can reawaken.  And then there can be very serious consequences.

HOST VO

Jonathan’s wife, Stephanie, refuses to be defeated.  She is determined to save her husband’s sight.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO

When we get home, I sit down and start to research.  You know, he supports us and I wanted to try to help him any way that I could.

HOST VO

After hours of painstaking research, Stephanie makes contact with a team of specialists at the University of Chicago.

JONATHAN STEEN VO

And they told us to get in there right away.

HOST VO

It’s their last chance to save Jonathan’s eyesight.

HOST VO

The next day, Jonathan and Stephanie make the three hour trip to Chicago.  

STEPHANIE STEEN VO

He’s scared that they can’t do anything.  That this is something he just has to live with.

HOST VO

Assigned to Jonathan’s case is Dr. Rama Jager.

DR. RAMA JAGER VO/OC

A parasite actually can settle into lots of different tissues within the body.  They have a predilection for the brain and for the central nervous system.

HOST VO

Dr. Jager and his team notice that Jonathan’s symptoms are similar to another condition called Macular Degeneration.  And Macular Degeneration can be treated.

DR. RAMA JAGER VO/OC

We’re thinking about giving him an injection in the eye to a point where he’ll be able to see clearly.

HOST VO

The injection has been used for Macular Degeneration, but never to treat Toxoplasmosis of the eye before.  There is no guarantee that the treatment will work.

DR. RAMA JAGER OC

Getting an injection in your eye, I think, is a very difficult thing to go through.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO/OC

We are willing to try anything at this point for his sake.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

Well it was very discomforting to know they were going to put a needle in my eye.

HOST VO

Jonathan’s future depends on the success of this untested treatment.  If it fails, he won’t just lose his sight, but his livelihood as well.

HOST VO

The parasite that’s been living inside Jonathan Steen for over 13 years is about to rob him of his sight.  The only chance to save his vision is to have an injection in his eye.

JONATHAN STEEN VO

They get a Q-tip with a numbing agent on it and rub it in your eye.  I could not sit still.  I was moving.  I was sweating.  They pulled your eyelid open and put it in your eye and inject the shot.

STEPHANIE STEEN OC

I watched them stick the needle in his eye.

JONATHAN STEEN VO

It’s very painful.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO/OC

I’m holding his hand the entire time trying not to scream.

JONATHAN STEEN VO/OC

You do all you can or try as hard as you can just to not think about it.

HOST VO

If the injection works, it will inhibit the body’s inflammatory response to the parasite, preventing the retina from becoming damaged.

HOST VO

Jonathan and Stephanie return to the farm, desperately hoping that the treatment will work.

HOST VO

After a course of three injections, Jonathan’s vision begins to return to normal.  His eyesight is saved.

JONATHAN STEEN OC

I had no more blurriness.  I could see just as good as if before this had happened.

DR. RAMA JAGER VO/OC

He’s done beautifully.  And his vision’s actually gotten substantially better, so I’m very happy for him.

STEPHANIE STEEN VO/OC

We’re grateful that he can get up every day and do his job and take care of us.

HOST VO

Jonathan may have won this battle against the Toxoplasma parasite, but he will spend the rest of his life knowing that the parasite is still hiding in his body waiting for a chance to launch another attack.

JONATHAN STEEN VO

I was told that it could come back.  But if you live thinking what could happen, you’re not really ever going to live your life or be happy.  So you go on with life and do what you normally do.  Hopefully, it never does happen, and go on living life and take it how it comes.

HOST VO

Toxoplasma infects as many as one-third of the entire human population.  But the parasite’s primary host isn’t humans, but cats.  One of the best ways to avoid infection is to always wash your hands after cleaning your cat’s litter box.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

In some cases, the Toxoplasma parasite can do very serious damage to its host.  But most of the time the immune system can keep it at bay.  It can’t be killed but it is possible to live with.  But there’s one parasite that kills more people on this planet than any other.  It’s extremely resilient.  And once people get it, they’re often stuck with it for the rest of their lives.

HOST VO

February, 2007, New York City.  Kelli Moles is a 25 year old newlywed investment banker living with her husband, Kyle.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

We moved to New York because we thought it would be fun to try out life in this crazy city.

KYLE MOLES OC/VO

We’re from the Midwest originally.  We’re living in the city now, and we’re absolutely loving it.

HOST VO

But for Kelli, the life of wedded bliss is about to turn into a living nightmare.

KELLI MOLES OC

It’s a Saturday.  I’m at home.  I wake up in a cold sweat.  I get a fever and a headache.  And now I start to get the chills and just shaking.  Even though it’s warm in the apartment, I feel cold all over.  I’m certainly not feeling myself.

KYLE MOLES VO

She doesn’t have very much energy at all which is nothing like her.  I’m having to help her out with everything from getting her medicine to getting her a glass of water.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I feel horrible.  Between the fever, the headaches and the chills, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

KYLE MOLES VO

My hunch is that she’s probably just got the flu bug.  It’s February in New York.  The flu bug was going around a lot right now.

KELLI MOLES VO

Kyle gets a thermometer and takes my temperature.

KYLE MOLES VO

It’s reading about 102, and that’s a little bit alarming to me.

KELLI MOLES VO

At this point, I’m concerned and I, I wanted to try to find out what this might be.

HOST VO

It’s the weekend, so Kyle takes Kelli to the local emergency room.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

They take my vital signs.  They take my temperature.  They take my blood.  They decide that I must have a case of food poisoning.

KYLE MOLES OC/VO

And I guess that this makes sense.  What they describe seems to kind of fit the bill.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I’ve had food poisoning before and I’m not sure if this is what it is.  But this is what the doctors are telling me.  I head home without any medicine or anything and hope that the symptoms are gone for good.

HOST VO

The next morning all seems well again, and Kelli goes to work.

KELLI MOLES VO

I’m at the office on a conference call and the fever strikes again.  I can’t believe it.  I thought that this fever was gone for good.  At this point, I realize it definitely is not food poisoning because the symptom is reoccurring.

HOST VO

She leaves work early to visit her general practitioner.  

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I have a low grade fever.  But I tell him that I’m feeling really sick.  I don’t know what it could be.  After a few minutes, my doctor tells me I have the flu.  I’m not completely convinced but I’m hoping that the medicine that he gave me will help me to feel better.

KYLE MOLES VO/OC

When we went to the emergency room and they told us it was food poisoning, now we have the family doctor telling us that it’s the flu.  I’m not really sure what to think.

HOST VO

Back home, Kelli takes her flu medication and 24 hours later it seems to have worked.

KELLI MOLES VO

The next morning I wake up, I feel okay.  I go to work and carry on the day as usual.  Maybe the doctor was right.  Maybe it was just the flu and now it’s all behind me.

HOST VO

For two days, she feels fine.  But then the fever returns with a vengeance.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

It’s like a bad movie.  The same things keep happening over and over again.

KYLE MOLES VO/OC

This has absolutely been a roller coaster ride.  It’s just craziness.  One day she’s fine.  One day she’s horrible.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

As my fever gets higher, it continues to get harder to process what’s going on around me.

HOST VO

While Kyle is at work, Kelli’s condition worsens.  She even begins to fear for her life.

KELLI MOLES OC

I think that my time is really short, and whatever I have is getting to a very critical stage.  For the first time in my life, I really fear that, that maybe this is it.

HOST VO

Thinking that she might die, Kelli rushes to an out patient clinic.

KELLI MOLES VO

I find a couch in the waiting room.  I lay down and hope that someone will help me.  The nurse takes my temperature and tells me my temperature is normal.  And then they discharge me.  I refuse.  I, I can’t go home.  And if I’m going to die, I’m going to die in a hospital where someone can help me.

HOST VO

But one hour later the nurse returns to take Kelli’s temperature again.  This time, it’s sky high.

KELLI MOLES VO

She is very alarmed because my temperature is 104 after being normal only an hour ago.  She’d never seen a temperature go up this fast.

HOST VO

Kelli is seriously ill but will the doctors reach a diagnosis before it’s too late?

HOST VO

Kelli Moles is in the emergency room at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York.  She is delirious.  She is hallucinating.  And she has a fever of 104.

MUSIC OUT

KELLI MOLES OC

I’m saying my prayers and hoping that this time…

MUSIC IN

…we’re finally going to figure out what’s going on.

HOST VO

On call is Dr. Daniel Caplivski, an expert on infectious diseases.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO

In listening to Kelli’s story, we’re hearing about fevers that are recurring every 48 hours.  And there is a certain thing about fever patterns that are very important to listen to and understand.  We asked Kelli if she had been anywhere outside the country in the past year.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I tell them that I haven’t been on any trips recently.  But that nine months ago I took my honeymoon to Africa.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

This is a critical piece of information because many people can acquire infections abroad that have a period of latency and incubation.  

MUSIC OUT

That means that they won’t feel any symptoms until sometimes months, or even years later.

MUSIC IN

HOST VO

The doctors return to Kelli’s blood sample.  Could it hold the clue to Kelli’s illness?

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

Kelli has some very abnormal labs.  It looks like there’s a problem with her blood.  There’s evidence that red blood cells are being broken open.  As we try to figure out all these different abnormalities on her peripheral blood smear, the one thing that can put it all together is malaria.

HOST VO

Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite called plasmodium.  

KELLI MOLES VO

I can’t believe I have parasites in my blood.  I think of malaria as a really deadly scary disease.

HOST VO

Once inside the host’s body, the plasmodium parasite enters individual red blood cells.  There they multiply rapidly, and eventually break the cell apart from within and legions of new parasites reenter the bloodstream and start the attack all over again.  This cycle of destruction repeats every 48 hours.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

The reason that people who have the malaria parasite get these fevers that come and go is that the parasite spends part of its lifecycle inside red blood cells where the body doesn’t notice that it’s there.  And then when the parasite erupts out of the red blood cells into the bloodstream, the body mounts a huge response and that’s when the fevers happen.

KELLI MOLES VO

When they explained how malaria goes in cycles, it all clicks.  But even though we have a diagnosis, things start to get more severe.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

Malaria can be fatal, especially in people who don’t have immunity to it and have never been exposed to it.

KYLE MOLES VO/OC

Never, ever would I have ever imagined that I would be sitting in a hospital talking about something that could potentially kill my wife.  It’s, it’s just, I’m in shock.

HOST VO

But how did this deadly parasite get into Kelli’s system?  The parasite is transmitted from host to host by an insect, the mosquito.  When an infected mosquito bites a human, the parasites enter the bloodstream and travel to the liver where they reproduce.  The new parasites then move back into the bloodstream and attack red blood cells.  When a mosquito bites someone with malaria, the parasite enters the insect and the cycle starts again.

DAN RISKIN VO

Malaria is the most successful human parasite on Earth.  Every year it kills more people than any than other kind of organism.  One of the reasons malaria is so successful is that it has the ability to avoid anti-malarial drugs by hiding inside the liver.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO

During her honeymoon, she took her malaria prophylaxis exactly as directed.  Unfortunately, no type of malaria prophylaxis would treat the liver phase of this parasite.  It only treats the blood phase.  So when she had a mosquito bite, some of the parasite was able to get to her liver and lie dormant for many months.

HOST VO

In the hospital, Kelli’s condition is deteriorating fast.  

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I feel so out of my mind and sick that I barely notice what’s going on around me.  I’m starting to have chills.  And I feel this bout coming on and I’m afraid of how strong it will be.

HOST VO

25 year old Kelli Moles is fighting for her life.  The malaria parasite has ravaged her red blood cells, draining her body of nutrients.  In a desperate attempt to save her life, doctors prescribe an anti-parasitic medicine called Chloroaquine.  

HOST VO

The drug works by disrupting the parasite’s metabolism, starving it to death.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI OC

These medicine destroy the parasites inside the red blood cells.  Later we need to give her an additional treatment to kill off all the parasites that are sleeping in her liver.

HOST VO

But there’s no guarantee that the drugs will work.

DAN RISKIN OC

With modern medicine, you can kill the parasites in the blood and you can kill the parasites in the liver.  But it’s almost impossible to ever be certain that all the parasites are gone from the liver.

HOST VO

Slowly, Kelli’s red blood cells start to recover.  But just as she begins to feel better, a terrifying new symptom appears.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I’m laying here in the bed and my side feels like something is just grabbing on and, and squeezing it.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

We’re concerned she’s losing blood somewhere.  We immediately order a CAT scan.

HOST VO

The doctors find that her spleen has swollen to twice its normal size.  The spleen’s job is to filter out damaged blood cells.  With so many cells destroyed by the parasite, Kelli’s spleen is overworked.  If it ruptures, Kelli could die.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO

A splenic rupture is a potentially fatal situation because she can lose so much blood that she may bleed to death.  We rush her to the ICU.

MUSIC OUT

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

My spleen gets so big that it actually tears.

MUSIC IN

HOST VO

Kelli’s life hangs in the balance.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

We call in a surgical team in case she may need the spleen removed.  Because, in some cases, the bleeding is too brisk to stop.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I am a religious person.  So at this point I am praying to God that things will be okay.  I’ve never, you know, faced death before.  I’m very scared and very afraid.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

She’s losing blood at a very quick pace.  She needs two units of blood transfusion to get her blood counts up to a safer level.

HOST VO

For seven days, Kelli battles for her life.  After a series of blood transfusions, she finally begins to recover.  Slowly, her spleen begins to heal.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI OC/VO

Kelli gets very lucky and the bleeding stops.  I think Kelli really did dodge a bullet.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

Over the course of a week or so, I slowly start to recover.

HOST VO

Finally, Kelli leaves the hospital and returns to a normal life.  

KELLI MOLES VO

Walking out of the hospital is one of the happiest days of my life.

KYLE MOLES VO/OC

The fact that, that she’s actually able to walk on her own and smile again, it’s absolutely awesome.

HOST VO

Even though Kelli is now symptom free, she can never be sure that the parasite is gone from her system forever.

DAN RISKIN OC

There are thousands of cases of people that have malaria, receive treatment and think they’re cured.  But they have a relapse many years later and find out that all along they’ve been living with the parasite.

HOST VO

Malaria is endemic in tropical regions across Africa, South America and Asia.  Between 350 and 500 million people are infected with the parasite worldwide.  When traveling in affected regions, the best way to avoid infection is to always wear insect repellant.  Use a mosquito at night and take a full course of anti-malarial drugs.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

There is no question that malaria is the most deadly human parasite on Earth.  It kills millions of people every year.  And even the people that survive malaria may never be able to rid themselves of the parasite completely.  When we think about the natural world, we often think about predator and prey relationships.  But one could argue that the relationship between parasites and their hosts is even more common on Earth.  And while some parasites kill their hosts, it’s actually in the best interest of most parasites to keep their hosts alive.  Some of the most successful parasites on Earth are so difficult to kill that once a host is infected, it’s condemned to a life with a monster inside.

HOST VO

For more disgusting parasites and their stomach-churning habits, visit our website.  Animalplanet.com/monstersinside me.

HOST VO

But there’s a twist.

DAN RISKIN OC

The toxoplasma parasite does something extraordinary.  When it gets inside a mouse, it shuts down the part of the mouse’s brain that makes it afraid of cats.

HOST VO

When Toxoplasma Gondii infects a rodent’s brain, the parasite alters its neuro chemistry.  This chemical change manipulates the behavior of the rodent, switching off the part of the rodent’s brain that makes the rodent avoid cat urine.  This chemical alteration makes the rodent unafraid of its main predator, the cat.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

Because it’s not scared of cats, it’s more likely to be eaten by a cat.  And if it gets eaten by a cat, the toxoplasma parasite has completed its lifecycle.

HOST VO

The toxoplasma parasite can change the behavior of rats and mice.  And some scientists are investigating whether the same could be true with humans.  Dr. Fuller Torrey is a Psychiatrist and Director of Lab Research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

DR. FULLER TORREY VO

Some people who have gotten acute toxoplasmosis as adults actually have had auditory hallucinations, have actually had delusions.  You do, indeed, find that many of them have had psychiatric symptoms.

HOST VO

Dr. Torrey is investigating whether the parasite could be a factor in causing schizophrenia in humans.

DR. FULLER TORREY OC

Schizophrenia is a very severe problem.  We know that something gets in the brain and changes the chemistry of the brain so that people’s thinking and people’s behavior are abnormal.

HOST VO

To test this theory, Dr. Torrey is examining the brains of over 600 deceased individuals with both normal and abnormal psychiatric case histories, looking for parasites that he believes distort human behavior.

DR. FULLER TORREY OC/VO

Toxoplasma Gondii likes brain tissue.  It selectively goes to brain tissue.  But being able to identify it, that’s the challenge.  By cutting out a small piece of this particularly critical area of the brain, we can then use it to look for Toxoplasma.  I think a salami slicer is one way to describe it.  She is cutting the small piece of brain in slices that are thinner than a postage stamp.  If we were to find Toxoplasma in this part of the brain and did not find it and in that this part of the brain of normal controls, that would be a very strong indication that Toxoplasmosis was playing a very important if not critical role in schizophrenia.  

HOST VO

Dr. Torrey’s research is ongoing.  But if his tests show parasites are the cause of schizophrenia, he may help scientists get one step closer to curing the disease.  

DR. FULLER TORREY OC/VO

Hopefully, then, it would open up the avenue to new drugs to treat much more targeted to treat the neuro chemical abnormalities that are part of the disease.

KELLI MOLES VO/OC

I’m not used to feeling this helpless and out of control.

KYLE MOLES VO

And I’m afraid what she’s saying just isn’t making a ton of sense.

HOST VO

One scientist is trying to control the spread of malaria in a different way.  Dr. George Dimopoulos is a Microbiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  He is formulating a revolutionary new technique that he hopes will eradicate the malaria plasmodium forever.

DR. GEORGE DIMOPOULOS VO

Our approach is to block the malaria parasite in the mosquito when it is infecting the mosquito’s gut.

HOST VO

He begins by injecting mosquitoes with a special serum that will make the mosquitoes resistant to malaria.  

DR. GEORGE DIMOPOULOS OC/VO

Now it’s time to feed them on human blood that is infected with the malaria parasite.  We are feeding both the control mosquitoes that have not been treated and the treated mosquitoes on the same malaria parasite infected blood.

HOST VO

For seven days, the parasites are given their chance to colonize the mosquitoes.

DR. GEORGE DIMOPOULOS VO

There are parasites on these guts.  These guts are heavily infected.  Clearly, the lack of a strong immune response has allowed the Plasmodium parasite to establish an infection.  Here we’re dissecting a mosquito from the group that was treated with the liquid RNA solution.  There are no visible parasites.  This tells us that this mosquito is resistant to the malaria parasite.  Its immune system has succeeded in killing all parasites.

HOST VO

Dr. Dimopoulos’ research could form the basis for a plan to eradicate malaria forever.  If these hyper immune mosquitoes were released into the environment their genes would spread, eventually making all mosquitoes immune to malaria.

DR. GEORGE DIMOPOULOS VO

These mosquitoes will mate with the natural mosquitoes, and they will spread the resistant genes to them.  In this way, we will be able to eradicate the parasite from the planet.

HOST VO

It could be ten years before Dr. Dimopoulos’ technique becomes reality.  But when it does, it may signal the end of the malaria parasite.