5mo ago

Burning in woman’s legs turned out to be slug parasites migrating to her brain

arstechnica.com

24 comments

fuck is it rat lung worm?
edit: it is rat lung worm. prob contracted in Hawaii
- Remember that teenager that ate a slug in a dare and contracted rat lungworm. He ended up in a coma, woke up paralyzed and eventually died.
  So yeah remember to wash your vegetables, a tiny snail or slug can infect you.
  
  Wow that was as abrupt as the end of Squid Game S2.
- wtf hawaii, 22 years there and never heard of it but it looks relatively recent
  at least it is rare
  
  Yeah it's been a thing. Mostly unwashed or poorly washed greens
Alright that's enough internet for me today🫠🙃
- Don't forget that you have eyelash mites
  
  Don’t forget your gut biome is a friend, or else you’ll always remember that fecal transplants are an effective treatment.
  
  oh joy🫠
Really reassuring to know that even if you go multiple times to the hospital, they will probably dismiss it until the parasites are actually infesting your brain and making you crazy
- At which point it becomes a psychiatric problem
Fortunately, the woman's symptoms cleared with the treatment, and she was discharged from the hospital after six days.
And with debt that destroyed her credit and ruined her life regardless.
- Probably not. She was from New England with a primary care physician and just returned from a trip to Bangkok, Thailand; Tokyo, Japan; and Hawaii. She was insured.
I'm sorry but I am gonna choose to forget I ever learnt about this hellspawn.
- I suggest you don't read about prions.
  Fatal, untreatable.
  https://www.cdc.gov/prions/about/index.html
  
  I'll just wait until DOGE delete the cdc webpage before clicking this link.
  Edit:
  sporadic fatal insomnia
  Ah, as opposed to the regularly scheduled kind
  This whole article reads insane
  Experts eventually concluded that the spread of infection in cattle was likely tied to feeding practices. They speculate it began when cows were fed meat and bone meal from other cows that had prion disease.
  that's fucked up please stop
Woah, what a fucking wild parasite.
Testing for the parasite is difficult, and they can't even detect it from a spinal tap some times.
The good news is that the immune system fights it pretty well, and if death occurs, it's because the persons body was trying to protect the brain, but the inflammation of the issues created too much pressure and damaged the brain.
So the treatment is to let the body do its thing, but to prevent brain damage, they gotta drain the cerebral spinal fluid, and use anti-inflammatory steroids.
This is terrifying. Imagine being able to inflict imaginary suffering on a person. No scars.
God damn, that’s horrifying.

24 comments