Sushi afficionado discovers worm living inside him
FRESNO — An American man’s daily sushi habit ended in a trip to the hospital with a disgusting item to show doctors: a 1.6-meter tapeworm that “squirmed” out of his body, according to a report in The Guardian.
Fresno emergency department doctor Kenny Banh recounted that a man walked into his hospital, asking for treatment for a worm.
But when the patient opened a plastic bag, the humoungous parasite was inside, wrapped around a toilet roll.
“Apparently it was still wriggling when he put it in the bag, but it had died in transit,” Banh told The Guardian.
The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, told the doctor that during a bout of diarrhea, he looked down and thought a piece of his intestine was hanging from his behind.
When the man pulled on it and it kept coming out, he realized it was moving and must be a worm, The Guardian reported.
The incident happened last August, but came to light last week because Banh spoke about it on a medical podcast called “This Won’t Hurt a Bit.”
Banh laid the worm on a paper towel and measured it. The tapeworm was 1.6 meters long.
The patient was given a deworming pill which, Bahn explained, which was the same kind given to pets.
Last January, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a warning of an elevated risk of parasitic larvae that can grow into tapeworms being found in Pacific Ocean salmon, including Alaskan wild salmon that is popular in the US and elsewhere.
Bahn said many human hosts experience no symptoms. Worms often die and are passed at the end of their lifecycle. They can also slip out alive, as in the case of the man in Fresno.