Continued from last week

Last week, I had promised to commence a new theme today, since we had exhausted the topic of maladies associated with the heart and circulatory system. We dealt primarily with the malfunctions of the heart itself. However, there is one very specific parasite-based ailment that impacts so much on the heart’s function,  that we have decided to include it in the discussion of heart problems.

I am referring to the heartworm infection. This disease has been dealt with before, but we have decided to revisit this sickness, because it is rearing its ugly head all over Guyana with greater incidence than ever before – possibly because of this disease’s mode of transmission which is associated directly with mosquitoes.

Heartworm

As the name suggests, this worm lives in the heart of dogs (and cats), primarily in the right heart chambers and in …..