An English woman residing in Australia has earned a remarkable distinction as the world’s first person to have a live and wriggling 8cm parasitic worm, typically found in snakes, extracted from her brain. This 64-year-old woman, whose identity remains undisclosed, was infected by Ophidascaris robertsi, a species of roundworm that can grow to the length of a Twix chocolate bar. Normally, this parasitic worm is only found in the gastrointestinal tract of carpet pythons living in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Medical professionals suspect that the woman inadvertently consumed the worm’s eggs by ingesting edible grass contaminated with snake feces. Once hatched in her body, the larvae made their way to her brain, possibly due to the medication she was taking, which compromised her immune system.
In January 2021, the woman’s ordeal began when she was admitted to a hospital in Canberra, experiencing three weeks of abdominal pain, diarrhea, dry cough, and night sweats. Tests for infection yielded inconclusive results, and she was ultimately diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown origin and treated with steroids.
Though her condition initially improved, she returned to the hospital a few weeks later with a fever and persistent cough. Medical professionals suspected T-cell driven hypereosinophilic syndrome, a potentially life-threatening condition in which the immune system becomes overactive, and administered immunosuppressing medication. However, in January 2022, she began experiencing forgetfulness and worsening depression, prompting doctors to investigate her brain.
Scans revealed a lesion in her brain, leading to a surgical procedure in June of that year. During the operation, doctors discovered a peculiar “stringlike structure” within the lesion, which astoundingly started to wriggle. Analysis confirmed that the worm belonged to a family of parasites typically found in snakes, making this the first documented case of human infection.
Subsequent operations found no other worms in the woman’s body. Six months after surgery, her forgetfulness and depression had improved but were still present. Medical professionals emphasized the importance of continued monitoring due to experiments on rats that revealed the worm’s eggs can survive in the body for over four years.
While the exact mode of infection remains unclear, the authors of the case report speculate that the woman’s habit of collecting native vegetation for consumption could be a possible cause. They hypothesize that she inadvertently consumed the eggs directly from the vegetation or indirectly through contamination of her hands or kitchen equipment.
The authors also note that while this particular worm species is limited to Australia, similar species exist worldwide, suggesting the potential for future cases. Additionally, this case underscores the ongoing risk of zoonotic diseases spreading between humans and animals. While the risk of a pandemic arising from this specific incident is unlikely, scientists have expressed concerns about the future possibility of avian flu transmission to humans.
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