A 38-year-old man was disoriented and could only stare upwards when he arrived at the hospital in Boston.
He had epileptic seizures, and his toes were curled up. He was unable to answer any of the doctors’ questions.
The 38-year-old had to go through a series of examinations before the doctors came to the conclusion that he had a tapeworm in his brain.
It had probably been there for several years.
This is stated in a recently published case study in the medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine.
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Can be ten meters
Tapeworms are according to Lommelegen a flatworm that can grow up to ten meters long, and the symptom of the infection is that joints from the worm are removed with the faeces.
Tapeworms are not transmitted directly from person to person. You become infected by eating raw or uncooked meat, or via infected water.
According to the website, most people do not know that they are infected because symptoms are mild or not present at all. These worms are intestinal parasites in humans, and use humans as hosts.
Tapeworm infection is uncommon in Norway, but is more common in areas with poor sanitation, and where you eat a lot of raw or undercooked meat.
Lies down on a toadstool after a shock video
Shaken on the floor
In the journal, Dr. Luke A. Steven of Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital writes that the man had felt completely healthy the night before.
Around 4 o’clock at night he fell out of bed. According to his wife, he was lying on the floor shaking.
When ambulance personnel arrived at the apartment, the man was disoriented and in combat mode. He raved and tried to refuse to join the ambulance.
When he finally arrived at the hospital, he had an epileptic seizure that lasted for about two minutes.
RELIABLE: The very sick man had to be taken to Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. Photo: Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital
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A number of examinations were taken of the man before the doctors realized what was wrong.
In the emergency department, CT and MRI images were taken of him, and dThe doctors found out that the man had neurocysticercosis in the brain, which is a serious parasitic disease that affects the central nervous system and often causes epileptic seizures.
According to the doctors, the 38-year-old had a tapeworm of the type Taenia solium in his brain.
UNWELCOME: A tapeworm can grow up to ten meters long. Photo: NTB
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– Wait a minute, this is not a brain tumor
Printed after five days
It is not known how the man, who moved from Guatemala to Boston 20 years before he ended up in hospital, contracted the tapeworm that has probably been in his body for many years.
The man was given antiparasitic medication and medication for the epileptic seizures.
After only five days, the man was in good shape again and could be discharged from the hospital.
He will probably have to take Levetiracetam epilepsy medication for the rest of his life.
– A new MRI examination of the head four months and ten months later showed a reduction in edema on the right frontal lobe. Three years after the first epileptic seizure, the patient was still seizure-free and continues to take Levetiracetam, the journal states.
Children ended up in the dryer – kindergarten closed during the day
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