China, a patient who is known only as Chen, began feeling numbness in his hands and feet from the age of six. However, the 23-year-old only sought medical attention in 2015, when he recently lost all sensation in the right half of his upper body.
He then headed to the First Affiliated Hospital of Wuchang university in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, where baffled doctors initially thought the infection might have come from consuming raw or poorly cooked exotic meats, such as snake or frogs.
He told the medics that he had been experiencing numbness, headaches, and occasionally nausea for the past 17 years of his life, but ignored his symptoms as he believed they could’ve been genetic, due to the fact that his parents also have always had difficulties in moving their limbs.
Chen explained, “Half of my upper body was completely numb, I couldn’t feel my hand and couldn’t lift it.”
Doctors decided to perform a CT scan on Chen and found a long and twisted parasite inside his brain. He then officially diagnosed with sparganosis mansoni, which is a rare parasitic disease.
One of the doctors said, “Once the worm enters the human body, it would cause severe infection.”
“The parasite would ‘eat’ the brain and damage its function, which causes numbness in hands and feet or affect one’s intellect,” he added.
Even though Chen received his diagnosis at the age of 18, surgeons were forced to delay the removal of the parasite because it wasn’t in a suitable location for them to safely remove it without harming him.
He has then been receiving conservative management until his surgery, which took place on August 25. He is now recovering from the operation after medics successfully removed the live worm, which is said to have measured as long as five inches (12 centimeters) in length.
Believed that the parasite had been living in his body for 17 years, since he began experiencing numbness and headaches at the age of six.
Source: Unilad