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An ultrasound of a man’s stomach has captured unwanted inhabitants – a tangle of squirming parasitic roundworms, according to a new report.
The 20-year-old man, who lives in New Delhi, went to the emergency room after experiencing abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting for a day, according to the report, published on Saturday November 21 in The New England Journal of Medicine. The man was previously in good health with no known health problem.
Tests showed the man had high levels of white blood cells, which may indicate an infection. He also had high levels of hemoglobin, a protein in the blood that carries oxygen. The latter result can indicate a number of conditions, from dehydration to blood cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.
(Chaurasia and Bhoi, NEJM, 2020)
Doctors performed an ultrasound of the inferior vena cava, a large vein near the abdomen, to check the fluid levels in her blood vessels. But during this process, they observed a “tubular structure … that moved with a curling motion” inside his stomach, the authors wrote.
Doctors then asked the man for a stool sample, which they examined for parasites. They discovered that his stool contained roundworm eggs Ascaris lumbricoides, a type of intestinal parasite.
(Chaurasia and Bhoi, NEJM, 2020)
A. lumbricoides is one of the most common human parasitic worms in the world. It is estimated that 800 million to 1.2 billion people have A. lumbricoides in their intestinal tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These worms can reach 35 centimeters in length.
Although relatively rare in the United States, the worm is most often found in the tropics and subtropics with poor sanitation systems and lack of access to hygiene products, according to the CDC. The worm is extremely common in India, Live Science reported.
People get infected with the worm when they ingest the parasite’s eggs, and it can happen when people eat fruits or vegetables that have been grown in contaminated soil, according to the CDC.
Soil can be contaminated if human faeces are used as fertilizer or if infected people defecate outdoors. People can also become infected if their hands are contaminated with this soil and do not wash their hands.
Fertilized eggs of A. Lumbricoides. (Chaurasia and Bhoi, NEJM, 2020)
The disease can be treated with antiparasitic drugs. In this case, the man was given an antiparasitic drug called albendazole, and he was released from the hospital after one day. During a follow-up visit two weeks later, the man said he was feeling fine and had passed worms in his stool.
In areas where this worm is common, ways to prevent infection include washing hands with soap and water before handling food; wash, peel or cook raw vegetables before eating them; and avoiding contact with soil that can be contaminated with human feces, says the CDC.
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.
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