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Woman, 41, had parasitic WORMS crawling under her eyelid after telling docs ‘something was stuck in her eye' for a month
IT'S pretty common to feel like something's stuck in your eye - even when there isn't anything visible there.
Dry eyes, scratches on the eye, or foreign objects like dust or an eyelash are popular culprits.
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But when one woman went to hospital on multiple occasions when the feeling wouldn't go away, it turned out to be parasites.
In a case report published in BMC Ophthalmology, the 41-year-old decided to seek medical help after feeling like there was something stuck in her right eye.
At first, doctors examined her eye, noted the outer surface, the cornea, appeared damage, but didn't find any foreign bodies.
They prescribed the patient, who was living in Beijing, eye drops, one type to treat the eye irritation and another with antibiotics in it to help prevent infection.
However, the eye drops didn't east her symptoms, and the next month she returned to the hospital reporting the same feeling something was stuck in her eye.
Persistent eye redness and itchiness had also developed.
Doctors reexamined he eye and this time noticed the tissue beneath her upper eyelid looked inflamed.
There were also "significant pimple-like bumps", authors of the case report wrote.
Using a device called an eyelid retractor, they pulled back her eyelid to more closely examine the tissue beneath.
Upon more detailed inspection, the doctors found four small, white worms crawling around.
I thought I had sand in my eye - now I'm blind after parasite burrowed into my cornea
The medical team proceeded to apply a topical anaesthetic to numb the area, and then removed the worms with forceps.
The worms were then sent to a lab for examination.
A microscopic and genetic analysis of the worms revealed that they were a species called thelazia callipaeda, also known as the oriental eye worm, which can cause a parasitic infection called thelaziasis.
After ensuring the woman had no more worms, doctors rinsed out her eye with a solution and prescribed her an ointment containing an antibiotic to reduce the risk of a subsequent bacterial infection.
"One week later, the patient's symptoms were significantly relieved, and no recurrence was reported over the following two months," the doctors wrote.
Thelaziasis is rare in humans, and tends to be more common in animals.
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It's primarily transmitted by drosophilid flies (fruit flies) that act as intermediate hosts.
These flies feed on the lacrimal secretions (tears) of infected animals, ingesting larvae, which then develop into an infective third-stage larva within the fly.
When the fly then feeds on the eyes of another animal (or human), it deposits the infective larvae, transmitting the infection.
Historically, most cases of thelaziasis in humans have been reported in Asia, with China reporting the largest number overall.
Between the country's first known human cases in 1917 and 2018, more than 650 cases have been reported.
"Thelaziasis cases have been reported mainly in agricultural areas and areas with high potential for contact with domestic animals," the report authors noted.
But in the case, the source of the woman's infection wasn't certain.
She was an office worker based in an urban setting, and didn't recall a recent exposure to flying insects.
She did, however, report having a pet cat who'd recently had an eye infection.
But a pathological examination of the cat wasn't performed as the patient refused.
The report authors concluded, even in urban areas, doctors should be aware of the symptoms of thelaziasis and consider it as a potential diagnosis.
Symptoms can range from mild to severe, including the feeling of something in your eye, itching, eye pain, bleeding or inflammation of the tissue covering the eye and eyelids, ulcers in the cornea, and vision changes.
Doctors should ask about whether patients have pets or have had recent contact with flying insects, they added.
