Helminthotherapy "Beware the dilemma of Co-Evolution.... Parasites may not always be our enemy!!!"

Helminthotherapy: "British research has revealed that the parasites responsible for the common tropical disease schistosomiasis (bilharzias) hold the key to the prevention of insulin dependent diabetes, also known as Type A diabetes. Research has shown that mice bred to develop Type 1 diabetes do not do so if they are infected with the eggs of schistosome parasites.
The scientists responsible for the discovery believe that within three years they will have identified the substance in the egg that is responsible for preventing diabetes. It should then be possible to test it, or a drug based on it, as a means of preventing the onset of Type 1 diabetes. A similar treatment may also be effective in preventing other diseases caused in the same way as Type 1 diabetes, including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, and possible asthma.
The breakthrough discovery was made when Dr. Anne Cooke of the Pathology Department of Cambridge University, who is studying diabetes using mice, which are genetically predestined to develop the Type 1 form, moved from London to Cambridge taking a colony of mice with her. The mice became accidentally exposed to parasitic and other infections. As a result only 50% instead of the normal 80% of the mice developed Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is rare in the developing world where tropical parasitic diseases such as schistosomiasis are rife. In contrast, it is on the increase in the developed world where vaccination and improved hygiene have virtually eliminated parasitic infections. This led Anne Cooke and her colleague parasitologist Dr. David Dunne to consider whether such infections might be preventing the development of Type 1 diabetes, as they had to some extent in her mice."