In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, what is the name of the parasite that targets English speakers?

In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the parasite that targets English speakers is called vocal cord parasites.

The vocal cord parasites are engineered organisms used by Skull Face as a biological weapon. They remain dormant in infected people until the host speaks a particular language, at which point the parasites attack the victim’s vocal cords and can cause fatal systemic damage. The English strain is central to the game’s plot because English is one of the world’s most widely used languages.

The threat connects the game’s espionage story to its themes of language, cultural control, and biological warfare. Code Talker, a Navajo scientist, helps explain the parasites and develops methods to understand and contain them. The game also includes other language strains, so “English parasite” is a shorthand rather than the complete scientific description.

Players sometimes confuse the vocal cord parasites with FOXDIE, the engineered virus from earlier games. FOXDIE targets specific genetic profiles, whereas the vocal cord parasites activate according to language spoken by their hosts.