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Published 20:22 IST, November 21st 2019

Man finds over 700 tapeworms inside his brain, chest and lungs

Tapeworms usually enter the body through the ingestion of tapeworm eggs that are present in infested pork and that were not destroyed by the cooking process. 

Reported by: Shubham Bose
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A man who had undercooked meat is found to have 700 tapeworms in his brain, chest and lungs.  After showing symptoms like headaches and seizures, Zhu Zhong-fa went to the hospital after a month where he found out that his body was infested with tapeworms that had already damaged his internal organs.

The doctors could not immediately diagnose, so he decided to get help from the First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medicine, Zhejiang University. A doctor from the department of infectious diseases was then brought in to try and diagnose Zhu and perform a medical check.

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Tapeworms spread all over his body

Dr Wang Jian-rong from the department of infectious disease found over 700 tapeworms in Zhu's body. Speaking to local media, Dr Wang said that the tapeworms were in the patient's lungs as well as in the muscles in the patient's chest cavity. The doctor also added that he found the presence of tapeworms in the lesions of the patient's brain. Dr Wang said that by the time the tapeworms were located, they had already damaged the patient's organs.

Tapeworms usually enter the body through the ingestion of tapeworm eggs that are present in infested pork and that were not destroyed by the cooking process. Zhu stated that his diet contained a lot of meat and that a month prior to coming to the hospital he remembered eating hot-pot and said that perhaps the meat was not cooked.

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Practice good hygiene 

According to the World Health Organisation, if tapeworm eggs get into the central nervous system they can cause neurological symptoms which include epileptic seizures. Many tapeworm cases don't cause symptoms and can be treated fairly easily, but in some cases, the worms can spread to other parts of the body and cause serious problems.

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19:03 IST, November 21st 2019