If you have just eaten or you’re about to sit down for a bite, you may want to hold off on reading this story.
What you are about to read will sound like something out of a SYFY movie but as you will come to find out, reality is stranger much more sickening than fiction.
CNN is reporting that doctors have found a tapeworm inside a British man’s brain and it has possibly been the reason for the man having headaches for several years.
Dr. Effrossyni Gkrania-Klotsas, a consultant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, told CNN “It had moved from one side of the brain to the other […] very few things move in the brain,”
It is uncommon for tapeworms to be found in the human body and when they are, it’s typically in the digestive tract as a result of consuming under-cooked meat.
The man who is of Chinese descent had recently visited China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand. He began complaining of headaches four years earlier and at the time, doctors doctors treated him for what they believed was tuberculosis. But as the worm moved, the symptoms changed, causing seizures and weakness. That’s when doctors realized something was amiss and when the tapeworm was discovered, surgery was performed to remove the parasite.
Helena Helmby of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told CNN a tapeworm common in pork is typically the one that charts the easiest course to the brain.
According to WebMD, pork tapeworms also pose a threat to the liver, eyes and heart.