Woman Mysteriously Sick For Years Turns Out to Have Snake Parasite in Brain

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a startling dispatch describing a case of a worm parasite in a woman’s brain. This is significant because it is the first time that the parasite has been found inside a human body let alone actually inside a brain.

The incident was reported in the latest issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases online journal and describes a case from southeastern New South Wales, Australia.

The First Case of a Snake Parasite in a Brain

The case was reported by a neurosurgeon who was treating a 64-year-old woman with some puzzling symptoms. She had been suffering from unexplained abdominal pain, diarrhea, night sweats, and a dry cough for three weeks starting in January 2021. Her blood counts were abnormal and she was initially treated for pneumonia but did not recover. CT scans later indicated both pneumonia and lesions on her spleen and liver. Nevertheless, tests for known parasites, microorganisms, cancer, and autoimmune conditions were negative.

As her blood tests were showing high eosinophil levels, doctors suspected that she had a parasitic infection of some kind but did not know what it was. Three weeks later, she was again admitted with a recurrent fever and a persistent cough.

Making the Discovery and Diagnosis

On this occasion, the doctors suspected that the negative Strongyloides 

serology test was wrong. Strongyloidiasis is a human disease caused by one of the 40 species of roundworms. They can infect birds, reptiles, amphibians, livestock, and other primates. She was therefore treated with an anti-parasitic drug.

With treatment, the lung and liver lesions improved but by early 2022 she was suffering from forgetfulness and depression. Finally, a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan found a lesion in the right frontal lobe of her brain. As the surgeon was performing a biopsy, he pulled out a parasitic worm that was writhing! Six months after surgery the lady still had some of her neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Where Did the Brain Worm Come From?

The snake parasite in the brain was identified as Ophidascaris robertsi. This is a native nematode (worm) of Australia and lives in the bodies of carpet pythons (Morelia spilota) but they need another animal to act as an intermediate host to complete their life cycle.

To explain, the adult nematode lives in the esophagus and gut of the python and their eggs pass onto the ground with the snake feces. Small mammals ingest the eggs which set up a home in their organs including the lungs. Then, pythons eat these mammals thus completing the life cycle.

So, how did a human get involved? Experts suspect that she accidentally ingested the eggs and therefore acted as the intermediate host. She had probably eaten contaminated vegetation that she had collected from around a lake where carpet pythons are known to reside. and had eaten. The eggs entered her mouth via her hands or via the vegetation which she later consumed. The case study illustrates how important food and hand hygiene is.

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