In a world-first, Canberra doctors have pulled out a live worm from a woman’s brain, almost two and a half years after she was first admitted to hospital suffering from abdominal pain, diarrhoea, dry cough, fever and night sweats.
The neurosurgeon who operated on the woman, Dr Hari Priya Bandi, pulled out a 8cm-long parasitic roundworm, before consulting a CSIRO scientist who specialises in parasites to find out what it was.
The scientist identified the worm as ‘Ophidascaris robertsi’ — a roundworm usually found in pythons. The 64-year old female patient from south-eastern NSW lives near a lake where carpet pythons are commonly sighted.
Dr Bandi’s colleague, ANU infectious diseases physician Dr Sanjaya Senanayake, believes that a python could have transferred the parasite through its faeces into the grass, which the woman may have come into contact with when she touched it.
According to The Guardian, the woman frequently collects the grass to eat, or may have consumed the parasite eggs through kitchen utensils when she was preparing the greens.
“Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that,” Dr Senanayake told The Guardian. “The neurosurgeon certainly didn’t go in there thinking they would find a wriggling worm.”
The patient had an MRI scan last year after developing symptoms including forgetfulness and depression.
“That poor patient, she was so courageous and wonderful,” Dr Senanayake added. “You don’t want to be the first patient in the world with a roundworm found in pythons and we really take our hats off to her. She’s been wonderful.”
As the first person in the world to host such a parasite in her body, researchers continue to investigate whether the woman has a pre-existing medical condition that causes her to be immunocompromised, allowing such a larvae to grow inside her brain.
The case, which has been presented in the September issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, indicates a growing trend of new or emerging infectious diseases in people that come from animals.
“This Ophidascaris infection does not transmit between people, so this patient’s case won’t cause a pandemic like Covid-19 or Ebola,” Dr Senanayake said. “However, the snake and parasite are found in other parts of the world, so it is likely that other cases will be recognised in coming years in other countries.”
The woman is currently “recovering well” in hospital, according to Dr Senanayake, and is being monitored closely.