They find 100 worm eggs in the brain of a little girl



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Image: Journal of Neurology

This happened in the Indian city of Gurugram. An eight-year-old girl went to see a doctor with severe headaches and sporadic seizures. After a few weeks, the doctors perform a brain scan. The result has become part of the medical literature.

Apparently, the first time he went to the hospital he was prescribed steroids to help with the cysts that had formed in his brain. This medicine resulted in a weight increase of 40 to 60 kilos. The daughter also began to have trouble breathing and walking

As the condition did not improve, the doctors performed another scanner that revealed the cause of all the ailments: the little one had an infection unusual parasitic, more than 100 eggs I had in the brain. According to Dr. Praveen Gupta, director of the Department of Neurology at Artemis Hospital:

The brain scan of the girl showed more than a hundred white spots, all formed by tapeworm eggs. Such an infection is caused by the consumption of certain foods accidentally infested with tapeworms. When eggs reach the brain through the nervous system, they cause what is called a neurocysticercosis, which is characterized by severe headache, epileptic seizures and some confusion.

Image: Magen of a patient with neurocysticercosis (WC) [19659002] Once diagnosed, the girl was first treated with decongestants to reduce swelling and then administered a treatment anthelmintic, which is used to kill parasitic worms. Then he had to go through another steroid cycle, although he could walk again without pain and resumed his studies.

Neurocysticercosis is a disease of the nervous system caused by Taenia solium, the so-called pork tapeworm. The worm eggs hatch in the intestine, where they can then spread to the brain. In addition, the larvae can also cross the blood-brain barrier, as in this case.

In addition, the diagnosis of the disease is often complicated because of the absence of specific clinical symptoms. Neurocysticercosis mainly affects people in South America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, being quite rare in the rest of the world. [IFLScience]

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