Beijing/New Delhi: A Chinese construction worker suffering from headaches and seizures was hosting hundreds of tapeworms in his brain, media reports said.
The man, in his 40s, was suspected to have got the parasites after eating undercooked pork and mutton, CNN reported.
Zhu (a pseudonym), from Luzhou in eastern Zhejiang province, had eaten pork and mutton cooked in a hot broth, a hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University said in its report.
A few days later, he felt dizzy and suffered from headaches. While sleeping, Zhu experienced seizure-like symptoms, similar to epilepsy.
A CT scan at a nearby hospital showed “intercranial calcifications” and lesions in his skull but he declined any further examinations and returned home.
Finally, he went to the Zhejiang University hospital after his condition did not improve. Doctors performed an MRI scan which diagnosed that he was suffering from ‘neurocysticercosis’ — tapeworms in the brain.
Doctors removed the tapeworms to reduce pressure on his brain and Zhu has since recovered.
Neurocysticercosis is a parasitic infection contracted when someone swallows tapeworm eggs passed in the faeces of another person with intestinal tapeworm. The larvae crawl out of the eggs and into the muscle and brain tissues, where they form cysts — like the “calcifications” observed in Zhu’s CT scans.
