According to the health officials, the 46-year-old man, later identified as Zhu Z. reportedly ate a meal which had been undercooked and unknowingly ingested the eggs of the dangerous parasite Taenia solium. As a result, his life was turned upside down as he started experiencing seizures on a regular basis and fainting episodes for weeks, which eventually drove him to seek medical treatment for whatever it was that was plaguing his life.
Although it had been only a month since he consumed the undercooked pork product, doctors were able to quickly identify the cause of Zhu’s seizures and fainting episodes. His body was utterly infected with tapeworms. The buggers were found to be living in his brain, lungs, and other parts of his body. The larvae of the worms had spread throughout his body via his bloodstream. Doctors are confident in labeling the worms as the result of the pork tapeworm. The man from China reportedly ate undercooked pork for dinner one night about a month ago and ingested the worm eggs into his body as a result. Although he didn’t think much of it at the time, Zhu, who works in construction, quickly found himself unable to go to work. Because of the seizures and fainting episodes, he could not be trusted to operate heavy machinery – all because of the pork tapeworm infestation that plagued his life and made him suffer.
Although the seizures had bothered him for weeks, he did not go to the hospital until things had advanced quite far. When doctors admitted him, he was foaming at the mouth and losing consciousness. Because the larvae entered the construction worker’s body through his digestive system, they entered his bloodstream and traveled to his lungs and his brain. These larvae, which are baby worms, squirm into the body tissue and then form cysts. If these cysts decay, reported Daily Mail, they can cause infections. People who experience this same problem as Zhu report having headaches, seizures, blindness, and dementia. However, these symptoms do not always appear so quickly. Sometimes it can take years for the worm larvae to make their way into the brain and lungs.
When these larvae caused cysts, they can develop an infection called cysticercosis, which is very dangerous when appearing near the brain or nervous system. If that happens, it’s called neurocysticercosis. Zhu admitted that he ate a dish about a month ago that he did not believe was fully cooked. Because he started experiencing seizures and fainting spells, he went to the hospital. Dr. Huang reportedly ordered brain and chest MRIs for this patient. “He not only had numerous space-occupying lesions in his brain, but he also had cysts in his lungs and chest muscles,” Dr. Huang said. “Different patients respond differently to the infection, depending on where the parasites occupy. In this case, he had seizures and lost consciousness, but others with cysts in their lungs might cough a lot.”