An Australian woman had an 8 cm live roundworm in her brain

A group of neurosurgeons has extracted an eight-centimeter live intestinal worm from the brain of an Australian woman, the first case of its kind in humans, academic sources reported Tuesday.

He The parasite, identified as Ophidascaris robertsi, is common in diamondback pythons, a species endemic to Australia.

Although the date of the surgery is not stated, the woman is known to be in good shape after several discomforts since 2021.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Hari Priya Bandi said she didn’t expect to pull out a live parasitic worm nearly three inches long until she was surprised when it wriggled in her tweezers.

“This is the first documented human case of Ophidascaris,” said Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious disease expert at the Australian National University and Canberra Hospital, who he even claims could be the first known case of a brain infection with this parasite in any mammalian species.

upset stomach

The 64-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital in Canberra in January 2021 after experiencing three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by fever, cough, night sweats and difficulty breathing, with no breath tests and biopsies found microscopic larvae .

“Looking back, these symptoms were likely due to the migration of roundworm larvae from the gut to other organs, such as the liver and lungs (…) At the time, trying to identify the microscopic larvae, which had never before been found to cause human infections, was like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” says Karina, director of clinical microbiology at the Canberra Hospital Kennedy.

In 2022, the patient underwent a MRI after experiencing memory impairment and depression. Brain imaging of the patient revealed that the woman had an atypical lesion in the right frontal lobe.

A neurosurgeon at Canberra Hospital examined the abnormality and found the unexpected seven centimeter roundworm.

The parasite was extracted alive and writhing from the patient during brain surgery, the date of which has not been specified, and the woman is currently being examined by the team of brain and infectious disease specialists.

snake parasite

Ophidascaris robertsi usually lives in the esophagus and stomach of diamondback pythons (Morelia slpitoa), a snake that can grow up to four meters long and excretes the parasite in its faeces.

Scientists believe the Australian woman may have touched or ingested native grass, where the snake would have excreted the parasite, which she collected near her home in southeastern Australia and used for cooking.

Experts point out that these cases of parasitic infections “are not transmitted between humans” and the patient is considered merely an accidental host, while remembering the importance of washing collected food, especially if it is found in a wild environment . (JO)

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