Better well done than worms!
A stomach-turning image of a parasite infection embedded in the muscles of the human body shows the dangers a person can face if they consume undercooked pork.
The doctor of the emergency room, Dr. Sam Ghali shared a gruesome CT scan of a patient’s leg muscles riddled with a parasitic infection on Sunday X.
The troubling diagnosis stems from a parasite called “cysticercosis,” an infection caused by the larvae of the parasite Taenia solium, also known outside the medical community as “Pigworm.”
Cysticercosis occurs when tapeworm larvae infect human tissue, Ghali said.
“Humans become infected with T. solium by ingesting cysts that can be found in undercooked pork,” Ghali wrote.
The larvae then hatch and “penetrate the intestinal wall and invade the bloodstream,” spreading freely throughout the human body and forming a hard, calcified cyst in the muscle or brain that can be felt as a lump under the skin.
They will appear as small white spots as the CT scan the doctor shared shows and are called “rice grain calcifications”.
Although larvae invading a person’s body sound disturbing, they are generally harmless since “the host’s inflammatory response usually ends up killing the cysts,” Ghali said.
Ghali warned that humans could face serious consequences if the larvae travel to the brain and form cysts in brain tissue.
“This specific condition is known as neurocysticercosis. It can lead to headaches, confusion, seizures and other serious neurological problems.”
The tapeworm Taenia solium enters the human body by consuming its eggs. These eggs can then develop into full-grown tapeworms in the human intestine, “usually around 5-12” weeks.
However, it does not directly result in cysticercosis.
Cysticercosis materializes when infected people pass tapeworm eggs to others through their “faeces.”
“It is very important to note that only when these eggs are ingested via fecal-oral transmission can the clinical syndrome known as Cysticercosis develop,” Ghali wrote.
It is mainly contracted by infected people who do not wash their hands properly when using the bathroom, but the eggs can also be passed through water contaminated with feces.
While “the prognosis for cysticercosis is generally good” and can be treated with “antiparasitic therapy, steroids, anti-epileptics (neurocysticercosis) and surgical removal,” Ghali shares that, in some cases, it can be fatal.
“It is estimated that approximately 50 million people worldwide become infected each year, resulting in approximately 50,000 deaths,” the doctor wrote.
Ghali concluded his X medical lesson by telling people to “do your best to keep clean, always wash your hands and never eat raw or undercooked pork.”
About 2.8 million people, mostly in “low- and lower-middle-income countries” in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, are suspected of being infected with Taenia solium each year, according to the World Health Organization.
The total number of people suffering from neurocysticercosis (NCC), “including symptomatic and asymptomatic cases”, each year is estimated to be “between 2.56-8.30 million”.
Taenia solium is said to be the cause of “30% of epilepsy cases in many endemic areas where humans and roaming pigs live in close proximity.”
“In high-risk communities, it may be associated with up to 70% of epilepsy cases,” according to the WHO.
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Image Source : nypost.com