Question: whats your favourite parasites? if you even have one

Erin Pallott answered on 1 Apr 2026:

I don’t think I have an overall favourite, but here are some top contenders:

Toxoplasma gondii is probably the best performing parasite! A huge percentage of people have this parasite, but never even know! It can have very slight effects on our behaviour, such as infected people are a bit more likely to take risks.

Trypanosoma brucei is another very clever single-celled parasite. They can change how they look to the immune system, like changing a coat. Some of them will change their coats to something different while the immune system attacks the rest, so a small number can survive and reproduce.

Hookworms are also very interesting! Their larvae enter through the skin, often the feet or legs when people walk in tall grass. They hitch a ride in the blood to the lungs where they break through. Then they get coughed up and swallowed to get to the intestine. It’s a very complicated journey for such a small animal!

There are so many more parasites with unique features that make them fascinating.