LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- A live parasitic worm has been found inside the brain of a 64-year-old Australian woman, marking the first case of the infection in humans.
The discovery was made by doctors and researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) and Canberra Hospital after they found a live 8 cm (3.15 inches) roundworm in the woman.
“Ophidascaris robertsi” roundworm, whose usual host is a carpet python, was pulled from the patient after brain surgery, “alive and wriggling.”
“This is the first-ever human case of Ophidascaris to be described in the world,” Sanjaya Senanayake, an expert on infectious diseases at the ANU and Canberra Hospital said in a statement.
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“To our knowledge, this is also the first case to involve the brain of any mammalian species, human or otherwise.
“Normally the larvae from the roundworm are found in small mammals and marsupials, which are eaten by the python, allowing the life cycle to complete itself in the snake.”
According to the researchers, who published their findings in the “Emerging Infectious Disease” journal, the woman probably picked up the infection from Warrigal greens, a type of native grass, she collected near her home and then cooked.
The grasses, they noted, are a habitat for pythons who would have shed the parasite’s eggs through their faeces.
Ophidascaris robertsi roundworms are common to carpet pythons and live in a python’s oesophagus and stomach.
The worms are said to be “incredibly resilient”, and have the ability to thrive in a wide range of environments.