Better well done than worm-eaten!
Sickening images of a parasitic infection embedded in human muscle show the dangers people could face if they eat undercooked pork.
Emergency physician Dr. Sam Ghali Share X On Sunday a terrifying CT scan was taken of the leg muscles of a patient afflicted with a parasitic infection.
The unsettling diagnosis was due to a parasitic condition called “cysticercosis,” an infection caused by the larvae of the parasitic worm Tapeworm, also known outside the medical community as “tapeworm.”
Cysticercosis occurs when tapeworm larvae infect human tissue, Galli said.
“Humans become infected with the pork tapeworm by ingesting cysts found in undercooked pork,” Galli writes.
The larvae then hatch and “penetrate the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream,” spreading freely throughout the body and forming hard, calcified cysts in the muscles and brain, which can be felt as lumps under the skin.
They appear as small white spots and are called “rice grain calcifications,” as shown in the CT scan the doctor shared.
Although the idea of the larvae invading the human body seems disturbing, Galli said the larvae are generally harmless because “the host’s inflammatory response often kills the cysts.”
Galli warned that people could face serious consequences if the larvae travel to the brain and form cysts in brain tissue.
“This particular condition is known as neurocysticercosis. It can cause headaches, confusion, seizures and other serious neurological problems.”
The tapeworm, Taenia solium, enters the human body by consuming eggs, which then develop into adult tapeworms in the person’s intestine, “usually within about five to 12 weeks.”
However, it does not directly cause cysticercosis.
Cysticercosis occurs when an infected person transmits tapeworm eggs to others through their feces.
“It is very important to note that only if these eggs are ingested via fecal-oral transmission can they result in the clinical syndrome known as cysticercosis,” Galli wrote.
It is primarily transmitted by infected people who do not wash their hands properly after using the toilet, but the eggs can also be transmitted through water contaminated with fecal matter.
“The prognosis for cysticercosis is generally good” and it can be treated with “antinparasitic therapy, steroids, anti-epileptic drugs (neurocysticercosis) and surgical removal,” but in some cases it can be fatal, Galli said.
“It is estimated that around 50 million people are infected and around 50,000 die each year worldwide,” the doctors wrote.
At the end of his medical lesson, Ghali told people to “stay as clean as possible, wash your hands always, and never eat raw or undercooked pork.”
About 2.8 million people are suspected of being infected with the pork tapeworm each year in “low- and lower-middle-income countries” in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. World Health Organization.
The total number of people affected by neurocysticercosis (NCC), including both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, is estimated to be between “2.56 million and 8.3 million” annually.
According to the report, the solium tapeworm causes “30% of epilepsy cases in many endemic areas where humans and free-ranging pigs live in close proximity.”
According to the WHO, “in high-risk areas, the condition may be associated with up to 70 percent of epilepsy cases.”
