Doctors pull ‘alive and wriggling’ worm from brain of Australian woman, 64, in medical first
- Researchers said the worm was a common parasite in kangaroos and carpet pythons – but had never before been recorded in humans
- The woman was apparently infected with the Ophidascaris robertsi roundworm while searching for edible shrubs near her house
Baffled doctors performed an MRI scan on the 64-year-old Australian woman after she began suffering memory lapses, noticing an “atypical lesion” at the front of her brain.
It was an 8cm (three-inch) roundworm, called Ophidascaris robertsi, which researchers said was a common parasite in kangaroos and carpet pythons – but not humans.
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“This is the first-ever human case of Ophidascaris to be described in the world,” said infectious-disease expert Sanjaya Senanayake.
“To our knowledge, this is also the first case to involve the brain of any mammalian species, human or otherwise.”
Researchers believe the woman was infected after foraging for edible shrubs near her house, which were likely contaminated with parasitic larvae shed in snake faeces.
The parasite, which appeared as a “stringlike structure” on brain scans, was then identified through DNA testing.