Experts Study What Parasites Eat to Find Ways to Kill Them, University of Melbourne Study

Researchers in Australia are working on a technique that will allow them to starve to death parasites which are proving harder to destroy using existing drugs. The parasite they used in the study was the leishmania, which is transmitted by the bite of the phlebotomine sandfly. After a period of incubation, the parasite causes huge skin sores, fever, anemia and damages the spleen and liver. It affects 12 million people worldwide and has become more resistant to current drugs.