Live Hookworms Discovered in Woman's Intestine During Scan
A medical scan showed live hookworms in a woman's stomach, shocking doctors who said she didn't have the telltale gastrointestinal symptoms of the parasitic infection.
The Chinese farmer, 75, first went to the doctor while struggling with dizziness, lack of appetite, trouble sleeping, and weakness 'without any obvious cause,' according to an article on the case in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.
The woman, from China's Yongzhou City, was diagnosed with anemia and stomach inflammation, and tested positive for a bacterial stomach infection. But treatment, the study says, didn't improve her symptoms — prompting doctors to prescribe an endoscopy.
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An endoscopy involves a long thin tube being inserted in the mouth to examine organs up close, the Cleveland Clinic explains.
In the woman's case, the endoscopy showed 'the presence of live nematodes [worms] in the descending portion of the patient's duodenum,' which is the beginning of the small intestine.
Researchers then examined her stool, which revealed the presence of hookworm eggs.
Parasitic worms infect up to 480 million people globally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control explains. The infection is usually contracted by walking barefoot on soil contaminated by the feces of a person or animal who has the infection.
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It generally causes diarrhea and abdominal pain, which the woman didn't experience, but can also cause the symptoms she did exhibit, which were anemia, loss of appetite and fatigue. The Hunan Province, where the woman lives, "has also made significant progress in controlling hookworms," the study notes, saying the rate of infection decreased from 22.86% in 1994 to 0.43% in 2020. Still, while "the rate of hookworm infection remains low, the risk [of infection] remains."
She was treated with Albendazole — an FDA-approved medication according to the Mayo Clinic. Following a course of the medication, her anemia was cured.
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