The Man With a Tapeworm in His Brain
One UK man’s own personal horror movie might be a boon to scientists, as they’ve removed a rare tapeworm from his brain and sequenced its genetic information. Tapeworms are usually “polite” enough to stay in human intestines. But nothing says they have to, and the larvae of some species are known to roam, even to the eyes, brain and spinal cord. Getting queasy yet? Sorry, it gets worse from here. The 50-year-old man, who was of Chinese descent and often traveled to his homeland, was admitted to an English hospital. He suffered headaches, seizures, altered smell and memory impairment. Doctors could find nothing wrong with the man, but over the course of four years of treatment and MRIs they noted a “lesion” in his brain that mysteriously crept five centimeters while they were studying. You can see a record of the movement in the images above. When they did a biopsy they removed a 1 centimeter long “ribbon-shaped” larval worm. With the worm gone the man was cured and is