Hidden Epidemic: Tapeworms Living Inside People's Brains

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/03-hidden-epidemic-tapeworms-in-the-brain

by llambda • 14 years ago

62 40 14 years ago

discovermagazine.com

debacle• 14 years ago

Well, thank goodness I'm already done with lunch.

This article was truly terrifying.

CodeCube• 14 years ago

Good god, that is horrifying. Did I miss it, or did the article not say how one contracts this?

I think I'll steer clear of the pork chops today.

pbhjpbhj• 14 years ago

You missed it, though it wasn't explicit:

>"The eggs are shed in the infected person’s feces. Pigs swallow these eggs accidentally as they rummage for food on the ground. When the parasite eggs reach a pig’s stomach, larvae hatch and burrow their way into the animal’s bloodstream. Eventually they end up lodged in small blood vessels, typically in the animal’s muscles. There they form cysts and wait until their host is eaten by a human. (Pork has to be undercooked for the tapeworms to complete their journey.)"

They link Wikipedia which is no more explicit:

>"They are infected by eating undercooked pork that contains viable cysticerci."

udp• 14 years ago

Even the thought of eating cooked cysts is enough to put me off pork.

yaix2• 14 years ago

That's why every pork that is slaughtered will be inspected by a vetarinarian who is looking for these eggs (little white balls).

I remember, when I was a kid, my grandparents had pigs on their farm and when they slaughtered one once a year, some dude with a microscope would come the next day, check it and put a stamp on it.

And I am pretty sure that it is the initial reason why some religions are not allowed to eat pork, a smart move 2k years ago, when there were no microscopes around.

cstejerean• 14 years ago

That's how to get regular tapeworms that end up in the intestine. To get cysts in the brain the process is slightly different:

"But sometimes tapeworms take a wrong turn. Instead of going into a pig, the eggs end up in a human. This can occur if someone shedding tapeworm eggs contaminates food that other people then eat. When the egg hatches, the confused larva does not develop into an adult in the human’s intestines. Instead, it acts as it would inside a pig. It burrows into the person’s bloodstream and gets swept through the body. Often those parasites end up in the brain, where they form cysts."

bryze• 14 years ago

Seems like avoiding undercooked pork and fecal contamination should do it.

jacquesm• 14 years ago

That wouldn't be enough. Even a vegetarian can contract this.

ufo4• 14 years ago

Undercooked pork gives you tapeworms. You get cysts from fecal contamination.

shimsham• 14 years ago

euwwww

liamondrop• 14 years ago

* puts down sandwich * backs away slowly * forward article to office, so they understand what I must now do * reaches for flamethrower...

shaggyfrog• 14 years ago

As the writhing, teeming mass of mindworms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. "Stay calm! Use your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail. It is well know that the Mind Worm Boil uses psychic terror to paralyze its prey, and then carefully implants ravenous larvae into the brains of its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only the most disciplined troops can resist this horrific attack.

fein• 14 years ago

So I take it that this means we all have to align ourselves with Gaia's Stepdaughters?

yaix2• 14 years ago

There is a BBC documentary called "Parasites" about the topic. It includes some cases of cysts and other larvae in the brain, and many more interesting cases of animals living inside humans.

niels_olson2• 14 years ago

The odds of a hacker in the US developing neurocysticercosis is approximately nil. If you would like to promote a slightly more relevant topic for your compadres, please consider upvoting my letter to a patient: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3982796

niels_olson2• 14 years ago

sigh

ufo4• 14 years ago

Did it ever happen to you that there are also hackers outside the US?

earl• 14 years ago

Oh my fucking god. I need an MRI. stat.

antr• 14 years ago

I read a very similar article not that long ago, and forwarded it to my dad who is a surgeon. He said that tapeworms are very common in developing nations, specially Asia and South America. In "99.9%" of the cases the eggs are digested or the cyst shows up in an organ causing relatively low damage with "easy" extraction possible. Unfortunately, some of those eggs/worms can find their way into the head.

His advice was to cook all meats (be it pork, steak, etc.) well, and to avoid eating raw/uncooked meat. Apparently it reduces the chances of eating a living egg. No more medium-rare burgers for me since then.

idleloops• 14 years ago

Check out Carl Zimmer's book: Parasite Rex and his columns for more of the same.

iharris• 14 years ago

I had to pick the Swiss cheese out of my sandwich after seeing the pictures.

OstiaAntica2• 14 years ago

Congress spends hundreds of billions bailing out banksters and auto unions, while easily solved issues like this are allowed to linger, destroying countless lives worldwide.

bdunbar3• 14 years ago

destroying countless lives worldwide.

Sure, it's a tragedy.

Philosophical question - why should I pay my taxes to cure this condition 'worldwide'?

This isn't polio, this isn't the 18th century. We know how people get sick, we know how to prevent this problem. Everyone does.

This isn't something money can fix - this is a cultural problem.

eli_gottlieb3• 14 years ago

Umm... actually... the reappearance of such "Third World problems" as tapeworms, bed-bugs, and other parasites in America has become a major issue. Congress does need to allocate money towards keeping our nation parasite-free.

Spoom• 14 years ago

If you're on the east coast like I am, the timing of this article is perfect.

notes to cook pork a little beyond the recommended temperature in future

tocomment• 14 years ago

Why wouldn't the blood-brain barrier prevent this?

mietek• 14 years ago

My question as well.

Lexarius• 14 years ago

The larva has to burrow into the bloodstream to begin with. Maybe it just waits until it gets stuck somewhere, and then burrows into the surrounding tissue?

ufo4• 14 years ago

The blood brain barrier is for microscopic stuff.

The tapeworm larvae, on the other hand, is a big multicelular mofo and it can burrow itself into brain tissue just like it can burrow itself into muscle/pork.

brlewis• 14 years ago

I couldn't find the "epidemic" part of this article. Is there one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic

In epidemiology, an epidemic (επί (epi)- meaning "upon or above" and δήμος (demos)- meaning "people"), occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience.

OstiaAntica2• 14 years ago

This pathology is NOT caught from eating pork. It can come from any food prepared by someone atypically shedding eggs (most likely someone from Latin America.) In fact you are more likely to get it from eating raw salad than cooked pork.

"But sometimes tapeworms take a wrong turn. Instead of going into a pig, the eggs end up in a human. This can occur if someone shedding tapeworm eggs contaminates food that other people then eat."

ufo4• 14 years ago

I find it interesting that, while we learn all of this in school here in Brazil people in developing countries have no idea about parasites. (but dont single out latinamerica - tapeworms are endemic in most of the developing world)

Anyway, if you are interested, it is also possible to get other types of tapeworm from other kinds of uncooked meat (like raw beef or sushi), although only the pork tapeworm is known to cause cysticercosis in humans.

dguaraglia• 14 years ago

1.5k to 2k people in a country the size of the US is hardly an 'epidemic'.

Hidden Epidemic: Tapeworms Living Inside People's Brains

Related Stories