Worm Found Alive In Woman’s Brain Raises Zoonotic Concerns

Scientists have disclosed that an 8cm (3in) worm was found alive within the brain of an Australian woman, marking a world first in the annals of medical science.

The “string-like structure” was extracted from the damaged frontal lobe tissue of the England-born patient during a surgical procedure in Canberra last year. This baffling case has thrown light on the heightened risk of diseases and infections being transmitted from animals to humans.

The red parasite, identified as an Ophidascaris robertsi roundworm, could have resided within her brain for approximately two months.

“Even if you take away the yuck factor, this is a new infection never documented before in a human being,” remarked Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases specialist at Canberra Hospital. The worm’s discovery during the surgery took the medical team by shock, according to Dr. Senanayake.

Carpet pythons, non-venomous serpents commonly found across Australia, are known carriers of this particular roundworm. Scientists speculate that the woman acquired the worm after coming into contact with Warrigal greens, a native grass, near a lake close to her residence.

In a detailed account published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Mehrab Hossain, an Australian parasitology expert, proposed that her inadvertent consumption of the foraged plants, potentially tainted by python faeces and parasite eggs, could have turned her into an “accidental host.”

The woman’s affliction initiated a cascade of symptoms, including stomach pain, cough, night sweats, and diarrhea, which eventually escalated into severe forgetfulness and worsening depression. She was hospitalized in late January 2021, with subsequent scans revealing an anomalous lesion within her brain’s right frontal lobe.

However, it wasn’t until a surgical biopsy in June 2022 that the worm was unearthed as the cause of her condition. The unique occurrence of Ophidascaris larvae infiltrating the human brain hadn’t been documented before.

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Dr. Hossain noted that the development of the third-stage larva in a human host is a rare phenomenon, as prior experimental studies only documented such growth in domesticated animals like sheep, dogs, and cats.

Despite the shocking revelation, the patient is on the path to recovery.

This case underscores a broader concern about zoonotic infections, where diseases jump from animals to humans. The Australian National University (ANU) team behind the research emphasized that 75% of the 30 new infection types identified in the last three decades are zoonotic.

Dr. Senanayake emphasized the need for vigilance in the face of increasing human encroachment into animal habitats. “Whether it’s Nipah virus… or a coronavirus like Sars or Mers that has jumped from bats into possibly a secondary animal and then into humans,” he stressed, adding that robust infectious disease surveillance remains crucial.