By: Amanda Miller
Dear Lymphatic Filariasis,
You disgust me. You are a parasite. You use unsuspecting mosquitoes to spread thread-like worms into unsuspecting humans. You occupy the lymphatic system in humans, and in severe cases, you lead to elephantiasis. In case you didn’t know, that’s massive and painful swelling of limbs. You cause pain, immobility, and problems for human beings that happen to be mothers, brothers, bread-winners, fathers, teachers, workers, sisters, cousins, friends. You’ve never bothered to ask for permission or wondered how your parasitic existence would affect their lives. To be honest, I’m pretty angry about this.
In fact, we use your name -parasite- to mean something so self-serving that would attach itself to someone else and live off of their life. Yes, we may have referred to past partners, boyfriends and girlfriends as parasites (evidently, relationships that don’t work out). We use your name for unsolicited malicious computer programs that destroy our hard drives. We use your name to talk about things that disgust us. Yes, we humans love a good analogy.
