Horrifying parasite found living in a woman's brain

The horrifying reason behind a woman's headaches may just give you nightmares!

Human brain viewed through a mid-line incision

Doctors made the gruesome discovery after Yadira Rostro came to them with severe headaches so bad they affected her sight. Said Rostro, who is from Texas, USA,

“Sometimes my sight was impaired… I could not see properly.”

A pair of tapeworm egg cases, dried and resembling sesame seeds, each containing hundreds of eggs

Doctors removed multiple tapeworm eggs from inside her brain after she complained of suffering from severe headaches for nine months. The sacs of larvae from eight tapeworm eggs inside Rostro’s head had been growing when doctors found them.

A tapeworm, shown here is the beef tapeworm which can grow up to 20 metres

It is thought that Rostro picked up the parasite from contaminated food while on holiday in Mexico two years ago. They are common in food contaminated with fecal matter but pass through most people in a few days. But rather than passing through her system, the parasite reached her brain through her bloodstream. It resulted in a collection of fluid which caused the headaches.

Tapeworm larvae

The parasite was removed during surgery at a hospital in Texas in September 2015. The neurosurgeon in charge of the operation said,

“They looked a little bit like eggs, and they had a clear sac. And inside it, a small tapeworm.”

A tapeworm’s ‘head’ or scolex has hooks and suckers so it can attach itself to its host’s intestines

The woman is happy to be alive and is expected to make a full recovery but perhaps understandably does not want to view the footage from her surgery.

(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)