Life-threatening parasite found in Chinese patients who ate raw centipedes
Centipedes widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, in dried or powder form, do not carry the parasite
Researchers have traced a dangerous parasite found in two Chinese patients to their consumption of raw centipedes.
This is the first time the food-borne parasite, which can prove fatal to humans, has been found in centipedes, according to research published by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on Monday.
“We don’t really hear of people eating raw centipedes, but apparently these two patients believed that raw centipedes would be good for their health,” said Lingli Lu, one of the lead scientists of the study and a researcher in the Department of Neurology in Zhujiang Hospital. “Instead it made them sick.”
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The patients, a 78-year-old woman and her 46-year-old son, who were treated at a southern Chinese hospital had been suffering for weeks from headaches and drowsiness.
A group of Chinese scientists later confirmed centipedes as the hosts of the parasite after performing DNA analysis on the remains of the insects, the medical journal reported.
Centipedes are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, though usually in dried or powder form, which do not carry the parasite.
It is the first time the food-borne parasite, Angiostrongylus cantonensis – known as rat lungworm for its preference for the arteries of rats’ lungs – has been detected in centipedes. The roundworm is typically found in snails and other mollusks.
