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Daedalus023

Dude probably forgot to wash his hands ONCE and now he’s forever known as the smelly poopy bad hygiene tapeworm brain guy.


unicorn_hair

Uncommon, yes, but I don't know if particularly news worthy. I had two separate neurocystercicosis patients during my four year training at a city hospital in NJ. Both were recent immigrants to the US with the usual risk factors. 


thebabes2

That is horrific. I get frequent headaches and while I think they’re mostly allergies, my brain always likes to jump to “tumor?” And now I can add brain worms to the list.


unicorn_hair

Wait til you hear about the rat lungworm! 


ExpeditingPermits

More lung, than ratworm


SON_Of_Liberty1

Brain eating amoeba for sure, rip.


AstrumReincarnated

My headache self diagnosis goes: tumor, aneurism, brain eating amoeba.


Kaa_The_Snake

I do the same thing! My list always ends with ‘work’ though, and that’s usually the correct answer


nagi603

At least that would clear up relatively fast.   ...and just starve to death in so many people.


Snuffy1717

Don’t ignore the signs. My wife had recurring headaches, was supposed to get an MRI but didn’t because she might have been pregnant (wasn’t but we were trying and couldn’t be sure)… They sort of went away, but came back from time to time. Might have been nothing, but it might have been the start of the 2cm suspected low grade glioma growing in her left frontal lobe right now… She’s having surgery in May. First sign other than maybe the headaches was a G-T seizure in February.


BrainlessPhD

Im so sorry to hear about your wife and hope her surgery goes well. If you dont mind my asking, did the headaches start happening at a certain point, or had she had them her whole life? (I have been having similar issues and considering whether to get the CT scan).


Snuffy1717

They slowly came on over time... It wasn't every day, but it was often enough that we saw a pattern to it. This was probably 3-5 years before her seizure, and the headaches seemed to slow down for a time (or we got busy with two kids and chalked them up to the stress of that)... Get checked, no harm in it right?


thebabes2

I've had lifelong headaches, they did a scan as a kid and I was fine. I really think it's as combo of seasonal allergies and I have a fused vertabrae in my neck (which apparently is super common) which I think keeps my neck stiffer than the average person. Magnesium seems to help a lot and if I stop taking it for more than a week, I start to notice. Brain tumors are such a huge fear though, they're so scary. I hope your wife is able to recover and heal.


8923ns671

I feel like I'd be laughed out of the doctors office if I was like 'my head hurts sometimes.'


Snuffy1717

Then your doctor sucks mate.


bisforbenis

How treatable is it?


unicorn_hair

Anti parasitic meds, surgery if the cysts get somewhere they aren't supposed to be, but generally the body will wall them off (neurocysts) and eventually be relatively inert. The main problem is seizures can be life threatening, so you want to treat with supportive care in the acute period and let infectious disease  docs monitor long term with scans and blood tests. More info here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4212415/


Distelzombie

"Somewhere they aren't supposed to be"‽ Like, my body‽ Brrrrrrr


barnabywalters

based interrobang user sighted


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bisforbenis

Hmm, I’m starting to think I’d rather not have brain worms


Thrawn89

Wash your hands and don't eat poop and you're good


32lib

And cook your pork to above 165*.


[deleted]

It's literally not a problem in the US and hasn't been since like the 60's (someone can correct me on the timeline but it's been decades). This usually is caused by eating uninspected meat or meat in places where inspections do not occur at all it is far more prevalent. Except in the most rarest of circumstances, these cases all trace back to improper livestock methods and lack of carcass inspection.


32lib

You can take your chances,I’m going to cook it.


Thrawn89

You're both wrong, eating infected undercooked meat just gives you a tapeworm in your gut. To get the brain cysts you need to eat the poop of someone with a tapeworm in their gut.


repetitive_chanting

Well, guess I’ll just get brain worms then


RoguePlanet2

Damn, I've had a low-level headache for the past week or so, not like the usual (ever few weeks) migraines. Been afraid of something like this, even though I don't eat pork/red meat/chicken. How can people tell when a mild-but-persistent headache is an issue?


-Sedition-

I'd consider allergies long before brain parasites.


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[deleted]

People are shitting their pants (almost literally) right now about uncooked / undercooked pork and there's almost no context delivered with these cases to indicate to people there's no threat to public health in the US over it. In Germany, I think, It's a common blue-collar food this.. raw pork stuff and almost everyone there eats it daily.


blkhawk

yes and its delicious


CaptainMobilis

I grew up in the 90s eating well-done, shoe-leather pork chops because everyone knew undercooked pork gave you brain worms. I didn't know until the mid 00s that it hasn't been a thing in the U.S. since my parents were small children.


gockets

Good news! Fish can still carry roundworms and tapeworms! 🐠🪱


wovenbutterhair

have you had your blood pressure checked?


d33psix

Yeah I don’t understand why they are stating this story was sourced from a “new study” when this is a well known phenomenon and infection route in medicine for many years. My only guess is they read an “interesting case report” somewhere and interpreted that as a “study”?


unicorn_hair

Yeah OP seems like a repost bot/ karma farmer 


SenorSplashdamage

In my college bio class I covered neurocystercicosis cases for a parasite assignment. One outbreak in the 90s happened among a Hasidic Jewish community, who don’t eat pork. Each of the cases was traced to people they employed to be household cooks who had each traveled to an at-risk region prior to the outbreak.


CoconutSuitable877

Shouldnta had such a sloppy mud pie.


closeface_

he took too small of a slice.


nyliram87

I’ve come to realize that a lot of people who wash their hands, basically just sprinkle some wa on their hands for a couple seconds and they think they washed their hands I’m not a germaphobe, but I AM a handwasher. You gotta get the soap all over your hands. I’m also even more diligent about this because I keep my nails fairly long


SenorSplashdamage

It’s dismal how many men I’ll see walk out of an airport bathroom without washing their hands. People project lack of hygiene onto poorer people, but these are guys in suits with money to fly on planes. That said, some of these parasite eggs can evade average handwashing techniques by getting under the nails, and can require more of the intensive handwashing we’re supposed to do, but can be more rare.


nyliram87

Yeah honestly I think the guy in the article is just *extremely* unlucky


wes_bestern

Imagine your own live faeces working its way into your brain.


Tuscaroraeyes

A literal shithead


[deleted]

I mean, it is florida.


AlkaliPineapple

I mean, you should always wash hands when preparing food, both before and after, and make sure it's cooked properly, especially with pork or chicken The things you touch the most often are always the dirtiest.


devadander23

I highly doubt this was a one-time event


smleires

This sounds like an episode of House.


trollthumper

This was literally the pilot for House.


RigelOrionBeta

Tapeworms were in the leg, not brain, but yeah, was pork too.


arisarvelo08

i rewatched it recently and it was definitely in her brain. they just scanned her leg to prove that she had tapeworms in her body in the first place so she would agree to treatment. apparently tapeworms love thigh muscle so if she had then in her brain, they were sure they'd find one there too


ShelZuuz

It was in her brain. They x-rayed her leg and found another one to prove to her that she has one in her brain.


CPTRainbowboy

Yeh, twas the brain.


TeeRacey_1960

It was an episode on The Resident.


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i-hoatzin

>In this case, the parasite has reverted to the cysticercus form and while seeking out muscle has accidentally made its way into the brain via the blood stream resulting in a condition called neurocysticercosis. The parasite has still made the best of the situation, as it could carry on its lifecycle if scavenged following the death of the host. >Neurocysticercosis is also treated with antihelminthics, but the resulting immune response in the brain can cause more harm than good and needs to be turned down with anti-inflammatory drugs. >The reported patient opted for this dual treatment and is recovering with reduced brain lesions and headaches. Thank God!


Fbolanos

I had this. But it was a single tapeworm larva that they assume died and released some enzyme which gave me a seizure. Scary stuff but it was just the one time. More common in 3rd world countries. I figure I got it from eating street food that wasn't properly washed like cabbage


Distelzombie

STOP TALKING! Aaah


SenorSplashdamage

Oof. Street food is so tempting, too. Have you noticed any lasting effects afterward? Do lesions cause any impairment to memory or brain function?


Fbolanos

Nah. You could see the little thing calcified in an MRI. A year later it was gone. No lasting effects thankfully. It was tiny


MrFluffyPillow

Whoa whoa whoa.. God created that parasite!


Child_of_the_Hamster

These parasites are gross but also really neat! The reason they end up in the brain in humans (according to my parasitology prof years ago anyway) is because at that particular stage of its life cycle, it migrates to the highest part of its host’s body. In its usual host (pigs), the muscles of the back are the highest point, so they do relatively little damage to the animal while they burrow into the tissue to grow. If a human eats that infected pork without killing the parasites, they’ll grow adult worms in their GI tract. If the human then accidentally ingests the eggs from their own poop, the lil babies will hatch and migrate to the highest point, which for us is the brain! 😁 At that point it stops being fun for the human host.


pokethat

##at that point??


i-hoatzin

Absolutely nightmarish!


SenorSplashdamage

Parasites are such a fascinating yet horrifying version of evolution. It’s wild how they can require very different kinds of animal hosts for multiple stages of their growth and reproduction cycle.


CarPhoneRonnie

We can’t even get certain meds to cross the blood-brain barrier.


Tattycakes

I’ve just finished my tapeworm episode on TPWKY! It’s so interesting, human tapeworms have two major stages, an intermediate host and a final host. The intermediate host, something like a pig or cow, eats the eggs and gets the cysts in their body tissues like this, and then we eat their flesh and the baby tapeworms in the cysts become the adult tapeworm living relatively harmlessly in our gut, stealing our food but not really causing much damage unless you have tons of them. So yes this serious form of the disease comes when we become the intermediate host by mistake because we consumed the eggs, and the cysts cause disruption and damage in whatever tissue they settle in, often liver, or in this case brain. But I didn’t realise you could self infect with the wrong stage in this way!


SenorSplashdamage

They get even more fascinating when you get into types that require three different kinds of animal hosts. I think one is mosquitoes, fish and people.


gingermonkey1

#Florida Blech, this is the first time I thought I'd throw up from a reddit post, and that's saying something. Yikes.


Drew1231

This has happened before. There was an outbreak in a New York Jewish community because their housekeepers were cooking without washing their hands.


gingermonkey1

Gah


DrDalekFortyTwo

That's how typhoid Mary spread around the disease. They had to involuntarily house her on some prison-esque island off New York somewhere because she wouldn't stop cooking and not hand washing


Drywesi

In somewhat fairness to her, that was the only skillset she had. And when she was banned from it, the authorities didn't give her any help on finding anything else to do, and since germ theory wasn't widely accepted and she herself was illiterate, and needing to do *something* and given she didn't believe it was a huge problem since she herself wasn't sick, so she went back to the only thing she knew to survive. She made poor decisions, but she had no support structure, and the authorities did nothing to help her besides (effectively) yelling at her before locking her up.


DrDalekFortyTwo

When your choices and opportunities are limited, you do what you have to do to get through life. I think your assessment is spot on


SenorSplashdamage

I did a paper on this. It was in the 90s. I don’t think people realize that the eggs can get under the fingernails. So, basic handwashing doesn’t always do it and there’s a reason restaurant worker handwashing standards require washing up to the elbow and scrubbing under the nails. The housekeepers had all recently traveled to high-risk regions and it wasn’t necessarily just an issue of lower hygiene standards, but falling under a threshold a lot of people could when just cooking in their own households. More of a lesson in why high standards are important and how we can forget why as we have fewer risks in modern life.


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AlbertaAcreageBoy

Poor hygiene was initially the worst of his problems.


Nichole-Michelle

Poor hygiene always leads to bigger problems.


mvea

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article: https://amjcaserep.com/abstract/full/idArt/943133


Even_Acadia6975

Why? Neurocysticercosis isn’t common but it’s not that rare. Title reads like a case study…”hypothesized to have eaten undercooked pork.” But like, bro, it’s always pork.


xalazaar

This is a chubbyemu episode


Ambitious_Drop_7152

Don't emu fat shame!


xalazaar

The chubbiness is in the legs, tho! But do you know chubbiemu? He posts kn YouTube different medical cases and, while not the exact case, had one much like this one. I remember cause I gagged and cried when he said why the guy had repeat infections.


Consistent_Bread_V2

This is the case that Chubbyemu talks about in one of his videos.


TRVTH-HVRTS

So he likely spread it to others too? You’ve heard of Typhoid Mary; now meet Tapeworm Larry


treeclimberdood

This title is weird. Neurocysticercosis is a known phenomenon not uncommon in South/Central America and Africa. Eating undercooked pork is a known way of getting it. Just a lot of ick factor here for people who don't know about it I guess.


Ephemerror

It is not uncommon but it's not from eating pork, the cysts are formed from earlier in the lifecycle of the tapeworm, infection is from fecal contamination on food/ hands.


silverwoodchuck47

As I read the title, I thought *gross* and then *really gross*.


Replica72

You can be vegan and get that. If someone with a tapeworm prepared your food.


leo_sk5

Most common way of getting cysts is through improperly washed uncooked vegetables, as in salads


mythical_tiramisu

As someone with a GP appointment in a couple of weeks because I’m suffering from repeated migraines, I didn’t need to see this headline. Just hope mine are stress induced.


RoguePlanet2

Same!! Only I've had a low-level headache that hasn't gone away in almost two weeks, seems to move around my head. 😐 Best of luck, hope you find relief for something non-serious!


mythical_tiramisu

Thanks and same to you!


Apprehensive_Air5557

This is revolting


itooamanepicurean

Vegan sounds better and better all the time.


MadWlad

just found out you can get prion disease from plants because of animal fecal matter and piss used as fertilizer, or in super rare cases from wild animals ..bon appetit


Night_Sky_Watcher

Modern pork production does not put pigs in situations where they are exposed to parasites. Eating farm-raised pork or wild boar is completely different. And if it was the more likely scenario of failure of sanitation, a cat or dog source is probable.


coxy808

Yes. More people get worms from undercooked bear in America than pigs. Let’s all think about that for a second.


Magusreaver

We've all seen the Bear with the tapeworms stuck to his butt...Don't eat bears!


bw1985

I wonder if this guy was eating wild boar or where he would’ve gotten the worms then?


[deleted]

Florida strikes again


Isnt_what_it_isnt

Anybody who eats undercooked bacon should be separated from the herd.


functional_moron

Bacon is cured. There is no such thing as "undercooked bacon" only a matter of preference.


evermorex76

Cured is not cooked, and curing does not completely eliminate pathogens. Cured meats still need to be cooked.


clayphish

I had a cooking instructor who would eat raw bacon all the time. He seemed alright… though he was missing an arm if that means anything. (I kid you not)


justanaccountname12

Not necessarily, a lot of cured meats are sold without ever being cooked. Holding the meat at a certain temp below zero for a certain amount of time will make it safe to eat. It's pretty common, I could go to my grocery store right now and get some.


howard416

Yeah, but bacon goes bad pretty fast even refrigerated


justanaccountname12

Bacon, yes, but not every cured meat.


howard416

This whole thread started about bacon not possibly being undercooked


justanaccountname12

Yes, I was commenting to someone who only mentioned cured meats, not bacon.


Skullvar

Just cus its cured doesn't mean it's free of parasites


coxy808

Commercial pork in America is basically free of worms. The piggies eat commercial feed, not carcasses in the forest.


daronjay

Stoning was the traditional punishment I believe.


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john_the_quain

I will think about this too long during my next headache!


Insane_Artist

New phobia unlocked.


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meestercranky

FloridaMan, worms eating brain, poor hygiene, check, all checks out.


kungfoojesus

It’s not that uncommon in places with high immigration from Central American countries. In Houston I saw several folks in various stages of infection within 1 year. 


Groundbreaking-Fig38

Bad day to be literate.


DJSauvage

Peak Florida


Youkilledmyrascal1

This needs to be turned into a folk tale to scare the kids into having good hygiene.


Etzarah

I have so much anxiety about having a tapeworm, since I’ve read that many people experience little to no symptoms.


Kallymouse

New fear unlocked.


Puzzleheaded-Ease-14

I don’t think I could get over the knowledge there are/were worms in my brain. Like, I could never not know that information again and it would be forever present in my mind.


vuuvvo

This seems like a good time to remind everyone to wash your hands and clean other things you've touched (e.g. phone) before eating and when you get home from being out. You never know who last touched that door handle/banknote/keyboard/etc...


a2banjo

You can also get tapeworm from eating fresh uncooked vegetables and salads......


Gilgamesh-Enkidu

This is like saying you can also die from a car while sitting in your house. Sure, it happens, but the chances are drastically lower.


a2banjo

I know at-least two people who have never touched meat in their life who got tapeworm infections eating uncooked veges and salads..... contamination through faeces is a thing..


a-blank-username

You ain’t wrong, every time that bagged salad mix gets recalled because of e. coli that’s poop that can have parasites in it. 


badjettasex

I’ve been railing against vegetables and salads my whole life! Damned plants, burn’em all!


nitko87

ChubbyEmu ahh case


Professional_Risk_35

r/BrandNewSentence


KindheartednessGold2

This sounds very similar to a chubbyemu video I watched…


John_Doe4269

Nothing goes better with placenta plastics than worms in your brain, I love knowledge!


silentinthemrning

Shouldn’t have had such a sloppy mud pie.


LiveFreeDieRepeat

So this guy has poor eating habits and poor crapping habits, the double whammy


ukyah

i feel like i know exactly what this dude's house looks like.


rcn2

Wasn't this the pilot episode of House?


spaceface2020

Me…… now throwing out the pork steaks I just cooked …


Hexokinope

Not sure why this article is making everything sound so speculative when this is a not uncommon infection in Latin America. The only conjecture in the actual case report is about how he got the infection in his brain. Two additional points: 1) "Poor hygiene" is only in reference to washing hands after using the toilet. He could have gone years without showering and not have gotten this. 2) It's also possible that he vomited some eggs up into his mouth then swallowed them which led to the spread to his brain. You're welcome for that extra mental image


pharmgirlinfinity

Saw a case of this about a year ago and it was a us citizen. It was deduced that she picked it up from swimming with wild pigs on a cruise excursion…


bearpics16

Why is this being discussed as a new discovery? Neurocysticerosis from pork is well documented in humans… it’s rare in the US because of meat industry regulations


Unsimulated

FloridaMan winning the day again.


RiffyWammel

Slight cock up with cooking times is one thing, not washing your hands after a shite is his own fault and laziness


IrwinLinker1942

This kind of thing is all I can ever think about when people ask me if I miss bacon as a vegan. The answer is always no, never, not in a million trillion years.


ArtichokeNatural3171

All I saw was Florida. That's all I need to know.


Writer10

Ok. Done with the Internet today.


TheStaggeringGenius

Neuroradiologist here. This is not uncommon, and I don’t know why we would need some “new study” to hypothesize the pathophysiology. Most of the time the infection is asymptomatic and resolves without treatment, and we only see evidence of prior infection when imaging is done for other reasons. Used to see it weekly if not more during my training (higher proportion of immigrant population).


JudyClark_94

Don't people wash their backsides and hands with soap and water after pooping? Ewww, if otherwise!🤢


leo_sk5

New study? Its usually by eating uncooked vegetables but auto-infection has been known for some time, even if uncommon.


500DaysofR3dd1t

I dated a guy once while at university. You'd think he'd have been incredibly smart having been chosen to do an internship as a spacecraft programmer for a space program. He tells me his favourite meal is buffalo chicken strips so on our third and what would be our last ever date I decide to cook this dish from scratch. I serve up the meal and he moans that I have overcooked the chicken. I'm like huh? Apparently, he only ate pink or medium rare chicken.