Sewage Worker In Spain Shows Up At Hospital With Worms Slithering Under His Skin

In an unusual case, a sewer worker in Spain had a roundworm infection so bad that doctors could see the larvae crawling under his skin. 

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the 64-year-old man's rare "hyperinfection". It stated that the sewer treatment employee showed up at a hospital with worms squirming under his skin after he realised that something was wrong with him as he was experiencing mild diarrhoea and an itchy rash. 

The man reported to the University of Hospital in Madrid. The doctors found that the man had contracted Strongyloides stercoralis, which is a type of parasitic roundworm species that lives in tropical and subtropical regions around the world and causes a disease called strongyloidiasis.

A series of images shared in the study looked more like shoddily-done tattoos than a parasite, because doctors drew outlines of the initial placement of the larvae just under the skin, showing that they moved over the course of 24 hours. And while it is unclear how the sanitation worker got the infection, doctors noted that the man had several environmental factors that made him particularly susceptible to the parasite. 

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Further, according to New York Post, the doctors explained that the strongyloides is generally asymptomatic, often going undetected for years - which they suspect was initially the case with the sanitation man. However, what led to his symptoms surfacing was the hormone therapy for malignant spinal cord compression that suppressed his immune system, effectively causing the parasites to proliferate. 

Therefore the patient went into a state of hyperinfection, a potentially fatal condition in which the abundance of larvae can trigger sepsis and organ failure. It went to a point where the roundworms were slithering under his skin. As per the outlet, the larvae were also visible in the man's stool samples. 

But fortunately, medics were able to help the man with powerful anti-parasitic drugs. "After treatment with oral Ivermectin, the patient's rash and diarrhoea subsided," a hospital spokesperson said.