No one wants a parasitic worm infection and they can be bad for your health, but studies show diseases such as asthma, multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease can be reduced if your body is a host to these blood drinkers

It’s a disgusting but true fact that humans have long lived with parasites that dwell within our bodies, feeding off us and sometimes causing sickness and disease.

Today, it’s estimated a billion people are infected by parasitic worm infections, mostly in developing nations.

Hookworms routinely infect humans through the skin – usually the foot – before migrating to the lungs and eventually establishing themselves in the gut where they can persist for years, feeding on blood. That can lead to iron and blood deficiency in the human host, affecting growth and development, as well as fatigue and general weakness.

But it wasn’t always just poorer countries affected by them – and it was only relatively recently that Western populations shed the worms they’d long carried.

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