Teenager dies after tapeworm eggs have hatched in his brain

• The doctors discovered that a teenager's brain was contaminated with tapeworm eggs when he came to the emergency after a seizure.
• The doctors diagnosed him as a neurocysticercosis, a parasitic disease that occurs when a person accidentally ingests tapeworm eggs, usually by consuming undercooked food or contaminated water.
• Although doctors gave him medication for seizures and swelling, he died two weeks later.
• Nishanth Dev, MD, one of the leading doctors in charge of the case, told INSIDER that he had previously witnessed neurocysticercosis, but no case as serious as that of the teenager .

When an 18-year-old came to an emergency room in India with swollen edema and severe convulsions that had made him unconscious, the doctors discovered that his brain was infected with Tapeworm eggs, according to a case study published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The doctors performed MRI scans to diagnose in the teenager a neurocysticercosis, a parasitic disease that occurs when a person accidentally ingests tapeworm eggs and hatches and infects the brain. Despite the treatment, the patient died two weeks later.

Tapeworm eggs can often be transmitted through undercooked pork, said Nishanth Dev, MD, one of the leading doctors in the business, at INSIDER. The disease can not be transmitted by human contact.

Once tapeworm eggs are in a person's body, the larvae infect the muscles and brain, causing cysts. In the case of the teenager, cysts appeared in his brain, his right eye and his right testicle.

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"I have already seen many cases of disseminated cysticercosis, but I have absolutely not had such a cyst charge throughout the brain and other parts of the body," Dev said.

Dev and his colleague gave the patient anti-inflammatory and antiepileptic drugs to help with swelling and seizures, respectively, but they decided not to give him any pest control because it can often cause inflammation and swelling of the brain. Unfortunately, the patient died two weeks later.

Cysticercosisa can occur anywhere, but cases occur more frequently in developing countries, according to the CDC. In many of these countries, pigs move freely and can easily eat human excreta that may contain tapeworm eggs.

According to Dev, patients with cysticercosis can survive because they usually do not develop as many cysts as the patient in this case. Seizures are common in patients, but most people do not have symptoms.

If you think you have cysticercosis, the CDC recommends that you immediately consult your health care provider to determine if additional tests or treatments are needed.