According to AsiaWire, a 43-year-old man in China had several episodes of seizures and unconsciousness for weeks, who was later taken to a hospital where he was found to have hundreds of tapeworms in his brain and chest after eating undercooked pork.
The patient, who was identified as Zhu Zhongfa, reported that he had eaten undercooked pork, which was contaminated with a parasitic tapeworm called Taenia solium. The parasite entered his brain through the digestive tract after eating undercooked pork.
Dr. Huang Jianrong of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, who treated Zhongfa, told AsiaWire, “Different patients respond [differently] to the infection depending on where the parasites occupy. In this case, he had seizures and lost consciousness, but others with cysts in their lungs might cough a lot.”
Dr. Jianrong explained that the parasitic tapeworm entered Zhongfa’s brain and chest through the digestive system, and traveling upward through his bloodstream.
At the hospital, he was diagnosed with cysticercosis and neurocysticercosis. He was given an anti-parasitic drug and other medicines to prevent his organs from further damage, per AsiaWire.
Dr. Jianrong said Zhongfa has been doing well after a week; however, the long-term effects of the infection are unclear.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended cooking meat at a safe temperature using a food thermometer in order to get rid of the parasite.
Also called pork tapeworm, Taenia solium can affect humans who can pass the parasitic tapeworm and eggs in the feces, which can contaminate the soil in areas with poor sanitation. The eggs can survive in the environment for weeks and months, potentially infecting cows and pigs when they are fed in those contaminated areas. Upon invasion in animals, the eggs are hatched in their intestine and are migrated to the muscles, developing into cysticerci. And when humans eat that contaminated and undercooked beef or pork, they are more likely to catch Taenia solium.
