The X-ray images above were making the rounds in recent weeks. They purportedly depict a Chinese woman's legs teeming with parasites that took up residence in her body after a decade of eating raw pork. Is this for real? Snopes investigated and, yep, the images are real. The story is mostly true too, although apparently she had been eating raw meat for 13 years, not 10. It's also undetermined how often she ate it.
China National Radio was the first to report on the sad case from the Yunnan province:
Tingting (pseudonym), 23 years old, is from Yubeng Village, Deqin County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Recently, she, who had been in good health before, suddenly developed symptoms of headache and thigh pain. Then, unexplained pain appeared in many parts of her body. In severe cases, even her eyes would hurt, and she would keep crying. After this situation lasted for more than a month, Tingting went to the Department of Neurology of the Provincial First Hospital for treatment last week. In order to find out the cause of Tingting's body pain, the doctor suggested that she first do a brain MRI and a full-body CT scan. After getting the test results, even the experts who have been practicing medicine for many years exclaimed: "It's incredible." – From various imaging examination data, Tingting's brain, back of the eyeball, thighs, abdominal wall, back muscles are full of worms, and even the tongue and facial muscles are infected. The blood test further confirmed that Tingting's cysticercosis antibodies were positive, which was a cysticercosis infection[…]
After careful questioning, the mystery of Tingting's headache was finally solved. "We eat raw pork on the day of slaughtering the pig."
I hope Tingting is recovering.
(Thanks, Chanté McCormick!)
Previously:
• Tapeworms took up residency in Florida man's brain after he ate undercooked bacon
• Someone is mysteriously dumping massive amounts of raw meat in suburban Christchurch trash cans
