Recently I read an article about parasites in the United States. There are more parasite sin individuals in third world countries. In medical school we learn about all these parasites but rarely see in clinical practice. I did Infectious Disease for a time so I saw more than the average clinician. The study looked at 916 species of intestinal parasites infecting 916 patients of the 2,896 in the study. About 36 % were from California.
The most common parasite was Blastocystis hominis. I see this to be a very common parasite, The other was Cyptospridium parvum. During the height of the AIDS epidemic more parasites were seen due to the number of immunocompromised patients at that time.
Most of patients whom I have suspected parasites were seen by Dr Kevin Cahill. He is the foremost parasitologist whom I had the pleasure of meeting when training at Lenox Hill Hospital. He is no longer practicing as he has retired. I want to personally thank Dr Cahill for his years of dedicated service to diagnosing and treating parasites. Unfortunately there are very few if any other clinicians who could take his place. He did anoscopes on all patients quickly making a diagnosis. There are many medications that are used. Many are ‘ tough’ on the system with many side effects. I have always used herbal remedies as wormwood, berberine, black walnut, cloves and pumpkin seeds for most patients.
A new book called On Parasites and Men has been recently published by Dr Omar Amin