An image from an electron microscope shows "trich" parasites attacking the cells of a vaginal wall.

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The tiny parasite undulates under the microscope like some creature from a sci-fi movie, but this one is all too real, latching onto the sexually unwary with tentacle-like probes.

Now scientists have mapped the genes of the nasty bug that causes one of the world's most common, and maybe least recognized, sexually transmitted infections, one with the tongue-twisting name of trichomoniasis.

Researchers hope the work will bring new attention to a parasite estimated to infect 170 million people a year worldwide, including 8 million in North America — and one that's emerging as a player in the spread of the AIDS virus.

"There are a huge number of people infected out there, but they don't know it, so you don't know it," warned Dr. Jane Carlton, a parasite specialist who led the four-year effort by The Institute for Genomic Research to crack the bug's genome.

The work is being published in today in the journal Science.

Most venereal diseases are caused by viruses or bacteria. A microscopic, single-celled protozoan named Trichomonas vaginalis causes this one.

The good news: "Trich," as this type of VD is called, is easily curable with a drug called Flagyl.

The bad news: Many people go undiagnosed and thus continue spreading trich, plus the parasite is starting to develop resistance to the drug.

Both men and women can be infected, although trich is more common in women. But men usually suffer no symptoms, while about half of women do, reporting such problems as vaginal itching and a fishy-smelling frothy discharge.

Trich's worst threat is that it quietly increases women's vulnerability to HIV by altering the lining of the vagina so that it's easier for HIV to sneak in. Trich also seems to increase the chances that people who already have HIV spread it.