After reading this, it got me wondering how parasites actually get into the human body if not directly ingested, as that seems fairly straightforward. That led me to this interesting snippet[0]:
> Parasites usually enter the body through the
- Mouth
- Skin
> Parasites that enter through the mouth are swallowed and can remain in the intestine or burrow through the intestinal wall and invade other organs. Often parasites enter the mouth through fecal-oral transmission.
> Some parasites can enter directly through the skin. Others are transmitted by insect bites.
> Rarely, parasites are spread through blood transfusions, in transplanted organs, through injections with a needle previously used by an infected person, or from a pregnant woman to her fetus.
Now, my remaining questions: how and why does a parasite navigate the body? For example, how did the parasite in this article likely begin in her digestive system and end up in the brain? Do they swim aggressively (yuck)? If so, does their destination matter to them?
[0] https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/infections/parasitic-infec...