In Australia, a parasite 8 cm long was found in the brain of a 64-year-old woman. This is stated in an article on the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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A woman in 2021 went to a Canberra hospital complaining of abdominal pain, sweating and coughing. Later, depression and short-term memory loss were added to the unpleasant sensations.
At the end of January 2021, the patient was admitted to the hospital after three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhea followed by a dry cough and night sweats. Prior to this, she had been treated for pneumonia and had not fully recovered. At first, his diagnosis was determined as eosinophilic pneumonia and treatment was prescribed.
At first, the woman became partially better, but after another three weeks she was again hospitalized with intermittent fever and a persistent cough. The treatment continued for a year. For several months in 2022, the patient felt forgetfulness and worsening depression. Brain tomography showed damage to the right frontal lobe. In June 2022, she underwent an open biopsy.
Doctors found and removed a live and mobile helminth 8 cm long and 1 mm in diameter. Experts tentatively identified the parasite as Ophidascaris robertsi.
The Australian National University team reports that over the past 30 years, 30 new types of infections have emerged, 75% of which are zoonotic – infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans.
The human population is growing, and we are entering ever new ecosystems. We see this problem again and again, whether the Nipah virus, which passed from wild bats to domestic pigs, and then to humans, or the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease and most likely passed to humans from an animal. Although Covid is now slowly fading away, authorities and physicians must provide systems for the surveillance and control of infectious diseases, the scientists pointed out.
It is known that the patient lived near a lake inhabited by carpet pythons, which may be carriers of the parasite Ophidascaris robertsi. Despite not having contact with snakes, the woman collected native vegetation around the lake to use in her cooking. The researchers speculated that she inadvertently ingested the worm eggs directly from the plants or by soiling her hands or kitchen equipment.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.