An American doctor from a Florida emergency department released a disturbing CT scan of a patient who was hospitalised after eating undercooked pork. The scan found a serious parasite infection in the patient’s legs.
The photo was posted online by Dr Sam Ghali, an emergency physician with the University of Florida Health Jacksonville, challenging his followers to identify the diagnosis.
Ghali eventually stated that the patient was diagnosed with cysticercosis, which is the formal name for tapeworm infestation.
If you’re a new follower I always post the answer with explanation the next day. If you’re new to my account—follow me if you want to learn about medical emergencies
— Sam Ghali, M.D. (@EM_RESUS) August 25, 2024
The example serves as an example about the importance of properly cooking pork in order to avoid such a infection risk.
The doctor furhter elaborated in the thread about the dangerous parasitic infection, cysticercosis.
Cysticercosis is an infamous parasitic infection caused by ingestion of larval cysts of Taenia Solium, also known as: Pork Tapeworm. The Life Cycle is absolutely wild and sort of complicated but I’m gonna break it down here and hopefully make it easy to understand:
“So humans become infected with T Solium by ingesting cysts that can be found in undercooked pork. After several weeks (usually around 5-12) these cysts evolve within the gastrointestinal tract into mature adult tapeworms. This condition is known as Intestinal Taeniasis,” Ghali explained.
“These adult tapeworms then shed eggs which are in turn excreted into human feces. It’s very important to note that it is only when these eggs are ingested via fecal-oral transmission, that one can develop the clinical syndrome known as of Cysticercosis,” he further wrote.
