EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED IN AN ALL-NEW SEASON OF ANIMAL PLANET'S "MONSTERS INSIDE ME"

-- On October 5, Season Three Shares the Gruesome and Deadly Stories Of Parasites Living Within Us -

(Silver Spring, Md.) - Just because a parasite is not a bear, tiger or some other large predator, that doesn't mean it can't be as deadly... if not more so.

MONSTERS INSIDE ME returns on Friday, October 5, at 8 PM (ET/PT), retelling the real-life, harrowing dramas of people infected by deadly parasites as doctors and scientists try to unravel each case before it's too late.

MONSTERS INSIDE ME reveals what happens to unsuspecting victims when the smallest creatures turn out to be the biggest monsters. Parasites are organisms that live on or in another species, which then serve as hosts from which the parasite gains nutrients. Failing to recognize or incorrectly diagnosing a parasite can wreak havoc and sometimes cause death.

This season, MONSTERS INSIDE ME features stories about people who are harboring tapeworms, flesh-eating diseases, the bubonic plague, rabies, rat-bite fever, a brain-eating amoeba and more. The series also chronicles accounts of victims who suffer from objects that mistakenly are left in them during surgery.

· When Kiera, from Springfield, Ohio, experiences severe headaches, she is rushed to the emergency room. Initially, doctors perform a spinal tap and suspect meningitis. After an MRI is performed, doctors realize she might have a teratoma, a tumor that is composed of cells from other organs, which can grow hair, teeth and even eyes. Are doctors able to remove the parasite living in Kiera's body before it's too late?

· In Flemingsburg, Kentucky, Shannon is planning her 16th birthday party when she suffers from extreme headaches and double vision. Misdiagnosed with migraine headaches, Shannon develops an infection that ravages her internal organs, and doctors say her heart is in the shape of an 87-year-old woman with muscle tissue similar to that of an overworked bodybuilder. Something deadly is attacking her from within, and no one knows if she'll make it to her birthday. Could Shannon's change in behavior, headaches and seizures be the result of rabies?

· John and Lucinda from Santa Fe, New Mexico, return from a weekend getaway when they both mysteriously fall ill. At first, the flu is suspected, but doctors discover the real culprit: the Bubonic plague, a parasite that's responsible for more than 150 million deaths worldwide since the sixth century, killing 50 percent of those infected.

· In Lynwood, Washington, Don is recovering from the removal of a 13-pound cancerous tumor from his stomach, but something still is lurking inside his body. Is it possible that a foreign object was left in his body during a previous surgery?

· Adam, from Veneta, Oregon, is vacationing in South America when a sore first appearing on his cheek turns into a massive, disfiguring wound. The doctor originally suspects staph infection, but when things get worse, doctors think Adam has leishmaniasis, flesh-eating bacteria. Can doctors cure Adam before he says, "I do?"

"In North America, parasitic infections are somewhat rare; regardless, they can happen to anyone," says biologist/zoologist Dan Riskin, host of MONSTERS INSIDE ME. "Parasites are in the food we eat, in the water we swim and on the ground we walk," continues Riskin. "They are lurking in the shadows, waiting for just the right moment to take a host."

MONSTERS INSIDE ME is produced for Animal Planet by Optomen Productions. Nicola Moody and Dominic Stobart are the executive producers for Optomen, and Erin Wanner is the executive producer for Animal Planet. Charlie Foley is the development executive for Animal Planet.