Swimmers beware: Parasitic flatworm larvae found in three Berlin lakes
Cercariae, or the larvae of parasitic flatworms, have been spotted in three Berlin lakes — just as we're headed for a record-breaking heatwave. Here's what you need to know.
As if we didn't already have enough to worry about. This may not be the news you wanted to read just as Berlin heads into a sustained heatwave (right now, Thursday is forecast to hit 34 degrees, with a near-unthinkable 39 degrees predicted for Saturday) but anyone planning to spend the next week camped beside a lake should be warned of a new threat: parasitic flatworms.
Three of Berlin's most popular lakes are currently affected: Jungfernheideteich, Teufelssee, and Schlachtensee. It isn't actually the flatworms themselves that are the problem, but their larvae, known as cercariae (Zerkarien in German).
When they encounter human skin instead, they burrow in and die there, triggering an immune response known as swimmer's itch.
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