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Tapeworms Doctors pull a two-meter worm out of a patient's mouth
A man in India complained about abdominal pain and tiredness for about two months. Finally, doctors found the cause of his discomfort: a nearly two-meter-long tapeworm. The physicians removed the parasite through the patient's mouth.
Pork tapeworm caused abdominal pain
For around two months, a 48-year-old man in India was tormented by abdominal pain and listlessness before the cause of the condition was found. The doctors were astonished when they found the trigger: a pork tapeworm (Latin "Taenia solium"), which was almost two meters long.
Doctors in India have removed a nearly two-meter-long tapeworm from a patient's mouth. The man had probably eaten meat that was colonized by worm larvae. (Image: 7activestudio / fotolia.com) Parasite detected by intestinal and gastroscopy
When the patient was examined, the doctors in New Delhi had noticed a slight anemia. In a subsequent colonoscopy, they came across one end of the parasite in the colon.
The subsequent gastroscopy revealed how long the worm had to be: At the endoscopy, where a camera was inserted through the esophagus into the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine, the other end of the parasite, as the experts in the " New England Journal of Medicine "report.
Worm pulled out through the patient's mouth
The approximately 1.90 centimeters long worm was pulled out through the mouth of the sedated patient. Including endoscopy, the whole procedure took about one and a half hours, reported the liver specialist Cyriac A. Philips, who had treated the man with Amrish Sahney.
"Before this case, I had never seen a tapeworm of this length," said Philips, according to a report by "CNN".
The patient subsequently received medications for parasites to kill remnants of the tapeworm. The man is said to have complained of no further complaints one month after the procedure.
Meat settled with worms
Since this was a pork tapeworm in this case, it seems likely that the patient had previously eaten pork that was colonized by worm larvae.
Philips warned against the possible infestation of food and advised the patient to avoid locations with poor hygienic conditions and to "heat pork at home well before it is consumed".
But other foods may contain parasites. For example, a few years ago a case was reported in China in which a man had thousands of tapeworms in his body after eating sushi.
Also in China, at the beginning of last year, a parasite was removed that was much longer than in the current case in India. As the doctors reported at the time, they had to remove a six-foot-long tapeworm from a 38-year-old.
Little worm diseases in Germany
In Germany or Europe, worm diseases are rather rare. However, it can also in this country - very rarely - come to life-threatening infections with the dog powder worm and the fox tapeworm.
About 40 to 130 infections of notifiable diseases are reported annually at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin. Experts assume a slightly higher number of unreported cases.
For example, the worms can enter the body via contaminated food or drinking water. Even toilets that are not clean are a problem. Even the smallest traces of faeces are enough to transfer the eggs or larvae.
Worms often live undetected in the human body for years. Complaints such as headache, dizziness, tiredness or nausea are often associated with a worm infestation, neither by the patients nor by doctors. (Ad)