US Man Goes To Hospital With Migraines, Doctors Find Tapeworm In His Brain

A 52-year-old man in the US who visited a hospital after suffering from severe migraines was left shocked after the doctors told him that he had a tapeworm infestation in his brain. According to the New York Post, the unnamed man sought medical help after his aggressive headaches became more frequent over the past four months. Scans revealed multiple cysts on both sides of his brain that turned out to be pork tapeworm eggs.

It’s believed that he contracted the illness from eating undercooked bacon after the patient told doctors about his ”lifelong preference for soft bacon.” Microscopic eggs could have entered his intestine, leading to a tapeworm developing and laying eggs that ended up in his faeces.

Doctors diagnosed him with the parasitic infection neurocysticercosis, the scientific term for a parasite laying eggs that infect numerous regions of the body.

Details of the man’s ailment were recently published in the American Journal of Case Reports. ”It is historically very unusual to encounter infected pork in the United States, and our case
may have public health implications,” researchers wrote.

The patient was taken to the intensive care unit and was given the corticosteroid dexamethasone four times a day to reduce the swelling in his brain. He was also given albendazole and praziquantel for two weeks, which are used to treat worm infections.

As a result, the cysts disappeared and his migraines improved. 

”A 52-year-old man with a medical history of migraine headaches, complicated type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity presented with a 4-month change in his migraines becoming severe, worse over his occiput bilaterally, and unresponsive to abortive therapy. His exposure history was unremarkable except for a habit of eating undercooked bacon, by which he would have developed neurocysticercosis via autoinfection. Neuroimaging and serology confirmed a diagnosis of neurocysticercosis and he was treated accordingly with antiparasitic and anti-inflammatory medications,” details of the case read. 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that there are between 1,320 and 5,050 cases of neurocysticercosis every year in the US.