An Australian woman who is thought to have become an ‘accidental host’ to larvae after using foraged plants contaminated by python faeces and parasite eggs for cooking, is recovering after the fully developed worm was removed from her brain.
Surgeon Dr Hari Priya Bandi pulled the 8cm worm from the patient’s damaged frontal lobe during surgery in Canberra last year.
According to the BBC, the 64-year-old woman had for months suffered symptoms like stomach pain, a cough and night sweats, which evolved into forgetfulness and depression. She was admitted to hospital in late January 2021, and a scan later revealed ‘an atypical lesion within the right frontal lobe of the brain’. But the cause of her condition was only revealed during surgery by Dr Bandi in June 2022.
Dr Bandi recalled that it was when she touched the part of the brain that had shown up strangely in the scans that she felt something unusual.
‘I thought, gosh, that feels funny – you couldn’t see anything more abnormal. And then I was able to really feel something, and I took my tweezers and I pulled it out and I thought, “Gosh! What is that? It’s moving!”’
It is thought the parasite could have been alive in her brain for up to two months.
Dr Bandi consulted her colleague Sanjaya Senanayake, who is also an associate professor of medicine at the Australian National University.
The BBC reports that researchers warn that the case highlights the increased danger of diseases and infections being passed from animals to people as human populations encroach on wild habitat.
Writing in the journal, Australian parasitology expert Dr Mehrab Hossain said she suspected the woman became an ‘accidental host’ after using foraged plants for cooking, such as a type of native grass, Warrigal greens, which grows beside a lake near where the woman lived. The area is also inhabited by carpet pythons.
The Ophidascaris robertsi roundworm is common in carpet pythons – non-venomous snakes found across much of Australia.
[Image: Screenshot from video of Dr Bandi describing the moment she pulled the worm from her patient’s brain.]