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By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHWhen there is an effective solution, many times that is an inflection point for understanding the enormity of the problem. We found that out with micronized Ivermectin-Mebendazole from The Wellness Company.🦠 The Hidden Burden: Foodborne ParasitesWe tend to think of food poisoning as a bad shrimp cocktail or undercooked chicken — a few miserable hours, maybe a day, then back to normal. TheNewsweekpiece covering a newLancet Global Healthstudy shatters that comfortable assumption. We’re talking about277 million illnesses annuallylinked to potentially foodborne invasive parasites, with roughly171 milliondirectly attributable to what people eat. These aren’t stomach bugs that come and go. These are parasites that set up shop in your organs, your brain, your heart — and stay there.📊 The Scale of the ProblemThe study examined 14 parasitic diseases across two decades (2000–2021), and the numbers are staggering. An estimated4.89 million foodborne DALYs(disability-adjusted life-years) were associated with these infections. The biggest contributors wereTaenia solium— the pork tapeworm that can causeneurocysticercosis, where larval cysts lodge in the brain triggering epilepsy — andClonorchis sinensis, the Chinese liver fluke acquired from raw or undercooked freshwater fish.Professor Lucy Robertson, the study’s lead author, put it bluntly: “Food poisoning is not only bacteria.”Public health messaging has drilled bacterial contamination into everyone’s head —Salmonella,E. coli,Listeria. But parasites? They’re treated like a tropical curiosity, something that happens elsewhere. Yet the Americas carried the highest burden in this study, largely driven byChagas disease, which most people associate with kissing bugs, not their dinner plate. Robertson notes that foodborne Chagas transmission actually producesmore severedisease than the vector-borne route.🔴 The Wakeup Call Nobody Asked ForHere’s what should make public health authorities uncomfortable: the overall burden of parasitic diseases was enormous between 2000 and 2021, andClonorchis sinensisincreased on the trend line. Robertson called it unexpected and said it “should be a wakeup call for relevant authorities.”Testing will identify the serious infections that will require treatment other than IVM-Meb or Bactrim.If you are developing new abdominal symptoms, consider the usual suspects: changes in food production and distribution, more international travel, and — critically — the growing appetite for raw or undercooked foods. Sushi bars, ceviche, rare steak, raw milk.🧬 What Prevention Actually RequiresThe article correctly emphasizes that prevention isn’t simple. You can’t just tell people to cook their food thoroughly and call it a day. Many of these parasites arezoonotic— they cycle between animals, the environment, and humans. That means a “One Health” approach is essential: veterinary surveillance of animal hosts, control of infection in livestock, safe water systems, proper waste disposal, and food-safety infrastructure that actually works.Most doctors in developed countries aren’t trained to think about parasitic infection when a patient walks in with seizures or heart failure. That diagnostic delay means more suffering, more transmission, and worse outcomes.From the list of parasites in this paper Ascaris and Trichinella are treatable with IVM-Meb. However in the United States their is a more responsive range of organisms:It’s important to remember that the current outbreak this summer in the United states is from Cyclospora a protozoa, where the treatment is TMP-SMX in the Emergency Medical Kit from The Wellness Company.🧠 What the Article Gets Right — and What’s MissingTheNewsweekpiece does a solid job translating the study’s findings into accessible language, and it avoids the trap of sensationalism. Authors are both quoted directly, and the key statistics are presented clearly.What’s missing — and this is a limitation of the format, not necessarily the reporting — is any real scrutiny ofwhyparasitic disease surveillance remains so neglected. The pharmaceutical industry has little incentive to develop novel antiparasitics when the patients who need them can’t pay premium prices.There’s also the uncomfortable reality that global food supply chains have made these diseases everyone’s problem. That ahi tuna steak in Manhattan could be carrying something that originated in a Southeast Asia. The boundaries that once contained these parasites are gone.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePlease subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companywww.twc.health/focalpoints📝 ReferencesRobertson, L. J., et al. (2026). “Burden of foodborne invasive parasitic diseases, 2000–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.”The Lancet Global Health.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214109X26001440Dewan, A. (2026, August). “Millions of Illnesses Linked to Foodborne Parasites, New Study Warns.”Newsweek.https://www.newsweek.com/millions-illnesses-linked-foodborne-parasites-new-study-warns-12332674