67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 23, 2014 — November 25, 2014)

V0049: The deadly swimming of Cercariae: An unusual microscopic swimmer

Authors
  • Deepak Krishnamurthy, Stanford University
  • Manu Prakash, Stanford University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2014.GFM.V0049

Schistosomiasis, also known as Bilharzia, is a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) caused by a parasitic Trematode blood fluke worm. In terms of socio-economic and public health impact, Schistosomiasis is second only to Malaria as the most devastating parasitic disease in tropical countries; with roughly 200 million people infected at any time world-wide and up to 200,000 deaths every year. The infectious form of the parasite, known as Cercariae, emerge from snails into freshwater and infect humans by directly burrowing into the skin. Thus, anyone in contact with infected waters is at risk, which mostly includes children. we report here their unusual swimming dynamics which include both head-first and tail-first swimming modes. These swimming modes are crucial for the chemotactic activity of Cercariae which allows them to seek out and burrow into human skin.  Based on these results, we propose a new kind of simple Stokesian swimmer (T-joint swimmer) in an attempt to explain the evolutionary advantages of this novel swimming mechanism. 

 

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