Canberra: A surprising thing has come out from the mind of a woman suffering from memory loss and depression. Doctors have removed an 8 cm long and live worm from the woman’s brain. This is the first case in the world so far, which has come up in Australia. The worm has been found in the brain of a 64-year-old Australian woman, the first case of human infection.
The discovery was made by doctors and researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) and Canberra Hospital. This is Ophidascaris robertsii. According to doctors, such live roundworms are found in pythons. Larvae of Ophidascaris robertsi also infected other parts of the woman’s body, including her lungs and liver.
Canberra Hospital director of clinical microbiology and ANU Medical School associate professor Karina Kennedy said. ‘The woman’s symptoms first appeared in January 2021 and she was admitted to hospital after her condition worsened over a three-week period. He initially developed abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by fever, cough and shortness of breath.
Typically, the larvae of roundworms are found in small mammals and marsupials, which are eaten by pythons. Grass is the habitat of pythons that shed the eggs of these insects through their feces. Doctors speculated that the woman may have come in contact with the same grass that she used to make the greens, which led to her infection.
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First published: August 29, 2023, 10:21 IST