46-year-old Man Suffers Seizures From Tapeworms In His Brain After Eating This

A 46-year-old individual from China who suffered seizures was found to have tapeworms in his brain and his doctors suspected it to be due to the consumption of undercooked meat.

Last month, the construction worker from Quzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province of China had purchased pork and mutton for preparing a spicy hot pot broth. After a few days, he started feeling dizzy and experienced severe headaches throughout the day. He also experienced seizure-like symptoms seen in epilepsy during sleep.

The patient’s colleagues found him during a seizure and rushed him to the nearest hospital where his head CT scan revealed intracranial calcifications and lesions. Since he refused to spend any more money on further examinations, he was sent home.

The patient’s symptoms did not stop coming and he continued to suffer from those seizures. He then revisited the hospital where his doctors performed an MRI scan which revealed neurocysticercosis- a condition characterized by tapeworms in the brain.

Upon knowing that the patient had consumed hot pot recently, the hospital’s chief physician speculated that the pork and mutton in it might have been infested with tapeworm larvae which could have entered the patient’s gut since the meat had been undercooked.

"I only simmered the meat a little," CNN quoted the patient. "The bottom of the pot with the spicy broth was red, so you couldn't see if the meat had been cooked thoroughly."

After the surgeons removed the tapeworms from his brain and reduced the pressure, the patient has been recovering well.

Neurocysticercosis is a parasitic infection that can be acquired when one happens to swallow tapeworm eggs that have passed in the feces of another individual with intestinal tapeworm. The tapeworm larvae will crawl out of the eggs and enter the muscles and brain tissues where they form cysts. Such cysts were observed as calcifications in this patient’s brain scans.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these kinds of infections occur throughout the world. However, these parasitic invasions of the human body frequently occur in rural areas of countries where pigs are let to roam and where sanitation practices are poor.