Comments on: Tapeworms on the brain

By: CH

CH — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:31:00 +0000

Don’t you think knowledge is a wonderful thing?

By: CH

CH — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:30:00 +0000

You can get the eggs through somebody who has an infection (for instance, doesn’t clean their hands properly after going to the bathroom and then prepares the food you eat). But these would only become larvae (the ones discussed here in the article).

You would probably be protected from eating the larvae cysts, which would then grow into an adult tapeworm (the long thingy you usually see pictured).

By: benher

benher — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:59:00 +0000

Remember when this used to be a blog of “wonderful things?”

By: mjfgates

mjfgates — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:11:00 +0000

That tapeworm-infested unicorn can emit tens of thousands of tapeworm eggs daily.

By: fiatrn

fiatrn — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:50:00 +0000

Ahh neurocysticercosis… a somewhat common finding at my old ER when we would CT scan trauma patients. Maybe not once per weekend, but once per month seems a reasonable memory. It was much much more common in the Mexican immigrant population, which always made us wonder about diet & cooking habits in people’s home towns. Most anitbiotics kill the larvae, but as the article notes, the scarring seems just as or more causal to the seizures (what a terrible sentence, but I can’t seem to finesse the grammar tonight). One friend always claimed it was mostly from undercooked pork, but I never saw research that honed in on a particular food vector.

The FiatRN
Denver, CO

By: Lyle Hopwood

Lyle Hopwood — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:17:00 +0000

Cymothoa exigua is the tongue-eating one you want, or rather don’t want. It eats a fish’s tongue and then lives in the mouth pretending to be one. Warning: If you search for and find pictures of it, you won’t be able to unsee them.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Or just do a GIS for mucormycosis (not recommended).

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:27:00 +0000

Look up Nightmare Fuel at tvtropes.org sometime. You’re welcome.

By: Buddy Bradley

Buddy Bradley — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:52:00 +0000

Not that I’ve ever regretted it, but now I’m REALLY glad to be a vegetarian…

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:17:00 +0000

To be clear: the picture above is of post-op stitching and not of a worm bulging beneath the skin, right?

Bless the Maker and his water.
Bless the coming and going of him.
May his passage cleanse the world.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000

But that parasite also makes you love cats, so it’s all good.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:09:00 +0000

So vegetarians can’t get tapeworms?

By: SumAnon

SumAnon — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:09:00 +0000

no worms in the whole article

By: snowmentality

snowmentality — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:06:00 +0000

The infected person doesn’t wash their hands properly after using the bathroom, so the eggs are still on their hands when they do something like make you a sandwich. Same way GI viruses are easily transmitted.

(And yet, probably 90% of people I see in public restrooms don’t wash their hands with soap. Most people just run their hands under the water for a second and go.)

By: snowmentality

snowmentality — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:57:00 +0000

You can use your neti pot with distilled water!

By: NelC

NelC — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:52:00 +0000

Oh, so that’s the other reason that tapeworm eggs as diet pills are a bad idea?

Also: EW!!

By: James Penrose

James Penrose — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Apparently whoever is in charge of “intelligent design” is a right bastard to create stuff like this.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:58:00 +0000

You should really avoid reading Carl Zimmer. He’s even worse about this than I am. ;)

By: chaopoiesis

chaopoiesis — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:51:00 +0000

During the course of a natural lifecycle, the proglottids are discarded through their host’s anus. A family member, friend or restaurant cook infected with an adult tapeworm can secrete tens of thousands of tapeworm eggs daily, which can be easily ingested by others.

I’m having trouble seeing the “easily”.

By: angusm

angusm — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:51:00 +0000

As FDR put it, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Also, tapeworms laying eggs in our brains.”

I’d like to believe that this is as bad as it gets, but if I say anything to that effect Maggie will discover some kind of parasite that hatches in your sinuses, emerges from your eyeball, climbs down your face and eats your tongue before laying its eggs in your lungs. And I don’t want to hear anything about that one, understand?

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:31:00 +0000

If you stop being afraid then the terrorists have already won!

By: Jorpho

Jorpho — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:18:00 +0000

To be clear: the picture above is of post-op stitching and not of a worm bulging beneath the skin, right?

By: colin

colin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:37:00 +0000

Where’s my !@$#ing unicorn?

By: pebird

pebird — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:36:00 +0000

I can’t use my neti pot, and now I can’t eat my breakfast.

By: Paul Coleman

Paul Coleman — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:03:00 +0000

This is not a wonderful thing.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:22:00 +0000

Yup. That’s something they get into in the Sci Am piece. Definitely worth a read for that aspect. Neglected diseases are a big deal.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:22:00 +0000

You’re welcome.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:22:00 +0000

I was basing that off of what I read in the Sci Am post. But I’ll definitely check out This Week in Parasitism.

By: CH

CH — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Yeah… not that it ever was on my list, but yeah… scratch it off… no, burn it off!!!

“The National Institutes of Health classifies neurocysticercosis as the leading cause of epilepsy worldwide, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tapeworms infect 50 million people globally. The CDC says an estimated 1,900 people are diagnosed with neurocysticercosis within the United States yearly.”

Say whaaaaat???? Leading cause of epilepsy worldwide??? 1,900 cases of neurocysticercosis a YEAR in the US???? Ewwwww… but as a leading cause of epilepsy, how isn’t there more noise about this? (I assume because it is in non-first-world-countries mostly.)

By: jkonrath

jkonrath — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Well, this certainly made me stop thinking about 9/11 and start freaking the fuck out about something else.